Mastercard Receives Backlash for Their Starving Children Campaign Involving Messi and Neymar

The Mastercard campaign that is being run solely in Latin America is intended to “deliver 100 million to those need of food assistance.” But it has been branded as “disgusting” by the public, as it relies on Messi and Neymar scoring goals at the 2018 World Cup before people in need receive food.

People seem to be “disgusted” by the campaign

Both Argentina and Brazil will feature a this year’s 2018 World Cup in Russia, which will see forwards Lionel Messi and Neymar respectively lead their nations in hopes of clinching the title. But unlike these two superstars who earn tens of millions on an annual basis, many people in their native South American are not as fortunate, as there are millions living below the poverty line, according to online sportsbook news.

In efforts to battle global hunger, Mastercard has launched a campaign for the 2018 World Cup in Russia that involves the Argentine and the Brazilian; for every goal that they score for their respective nations, Mastercard will donate 10,000 meals to people in need of urgent food. Although this perhaps created as a well-intentioned promo-campaign, since its release it has received significant backlash from the public.

People have turned to social media criticising the campaign as a publicity stunt that’s just trying to capitalize on the 2018 World Cup event to increase its personal goodwill. One twitter user said, “If you’ve got the money @Mastercard, just give it away anyway. Don’t let the fate of starving children rest on multimillionaire footballers.”

The campaign will greatly benefit Mastercard, but not people in need

Both Messi and Neymar have an incredible goalscoring record, but then again when you look at any forward player’s performance for their country at a tournament, at best they will find the back of the net 5 or 6 times, which fares very modestly in comparison to their club numbers, and it essentially means that at best 100,000 meals would be served by Mastercard from this promo campaign.

With millions of people suffering from malnourishment, objectively speaking this quite a small number. Another person brandished the campaign as “absolutely disgusting,” and since they’ve got the financial means that they should “give them the food anyway.”

Neymar, who has spent the last 2 months on the sidelines due to a serious injury, has issued a statement indicating support for the campaign that has since garnered considerable controversy.

“I’m happy I can help make sure that children in the region can have a plate of food and more hope,” said the 26-year-old Brazilian star. “Latin Americans know we can do great things when we come together, and this is an example of that. Together we can fight hunger.”

Following the public criticism of the campaign, representatives of the global payment system company highlighted their intention in preventing worldwide hunger, and that they’re proud to be one of the biggest contributors towards achieving that goal, per online sportsbooks in Russia.

“Mastercard is a firm supporter of the great work done by WFP and over the last five years we have driven a multi-million dollar investment in the agency’s life-saving work. We are proud to be the single largest private sector supporter of this agency. And we have the opportunity to use our brand and our brand ambassadors to raise awareness of this important cause.”