The HBO family drama/dark comedy “Succession” returned for its third season, and fans like me have been anxiously watching the hyper-wealthy Roy family stab each other in the back and find new ways to tell each other to “[expletive] off.”
To mark the show’s return, the real-life Scottish Premier League soccer team Heart of Midlothian called back to a plot point from an earlier season, where Roman Roy, son of the show’s patriarch, tries to surprise his dad by buying the club, believing the Edinburgh-based team was the one he loved as a kid. It turns out his dad was actually a fan of Hibernian, a different club, but that didn’t stop Hearts from temporarily removing their shirt sponsor in favor of the fictional Waystar-Royco logo.
🤝 Waystar | Royco
Ahead of the launch of Season 3 of #Succession, we teamed up with @NOW to pay tribute to our favourite Hearts-related storyline.
🤩 We've got limited edition shirts to give away – RT for your chance to win!
❤️ Raising funds for @MNDScotland pic.twitter.com/44NQIPMahD
— Heart of Midlothian FC (@JamTarts) October 18, 2021
Hearts is selling a limited number of these special kits, with proceeds going toward MND Scotland, the team’s usual sponsor, which works to fund research related to Motor Neurone Disease.
“Just like the Roy children in ‘Succession,’ we’re a club battling for the one place at the very top,” Hearts manager Robbie Neilson said in a statement to GQ. “Unlike the Roys though, we know we can only get there by working together.”
More companies are starting to see the potential in advertising on soccer jerseys. Fanbases are already used to plenty of logo placement, so there’s no culture shock when they see their team with a new brand on the kit, even if it’s just temporary. Ed Sheeran started advertising new music on a jersey, a soccer team in Wisconsin used theirs to let people buy each other beers from all over the world, and another used augmented reality to really beef up the on-shirt design. The options are almost limitless.
Hearts also put up some “Succession”-related signage around their ground, Tynecastle Park, to add to the branding effort.
“We love watching the Hearts-related storylines in the show, although we’re quite thankful not to have any members of the Roy family running the club in real life!” Hearts CEO Andrew McKinley told GQ. “Brian [Cox] and Kieran [Culkin] are always welcome in the director’s box at Tynecastle as a guest of the real owners of the club—the fans.”
It’s pretty subtle, considering Scottish soccer isn’t on the global stage of, well, “Succession.” But for fans in Edinburgh who got a kick out of their hometown squad being featured on the show, this is a must-have, and it goes toward a good cause.
