DIEUX DU STADE

'Dieux du Stade' (English: ''The Gods of Stade [Français]'', or ''Gods of the Stadium'') is the title of several very popular calendars published in the 2000s featuring nude and semi-nude photographs of members of the Stade Français, a domestic French rugby team, and in more recent years, players from other rugby union clubs and athletes from other sports.
The calendars include black-and-white nude, erotic and sometimes homoerotic photographs of the players. Partial profits go to charities. Starting with the 2004 edition, a DVD covering the making of the calendar has also been released every year. The calendars and DVDs are extremely successful, both with women and in the gay community.
The 2007 issue of the calendar raised some criticism from the rugby community. The images were deemed too homoerotic. Although the 2007 calendar ended up selling more than 200,000 copies worldwide, the direction of the rugby club took notice. As a result, the 2008 edition is less risqué, but still in the line of the previous years.
The popularity of the calendars has been credited for the increased fame of the Stade Français team, as well as rugby in general, in France. The calendars are part of a marketing strategy crafted by Max Guazzini, President of the rugby club. A savvy marketer who has built the number 2 French radio group, he has successfully used the calendars to attract a new audience to rugby games (live and on TV), such as women.
The photographers have been Kris Gautier (for the 2001 and 2002 calendars), Mathias Vriens (2003), François Rousseau (2004), Carter Smith (2005), Fred Goudon (2006), Mariano Vivanco (2007), and Steven Klein (2008).
Mark Simpson, the writer credited with coining the term 'metrosexual', has cited the Dieux Du Stade calendar as a prime example of what he calls 'Sporno' - 'the place where sport and porn meet and produce a spectacular money shot'. [1]

Contents

Licensed Products

See also

External links

Licensed Products

In 2006, a cosmetics company bought from the club a license to launch a line of skin care products for men. The "Dieux du Stade" products can be found in France only. The products launched in 2007. They carry names linked to rugby, such as a shower gel "Retour au vestiaire" (translation: "Back to the locker-room").

See also

★ Stade de France, the French national stadium

External links

★ Official store (in French)

★

★

★

★ Fan site dedicated to Dieux du Stade

★ Gay site with Dieux du Stade contents

★ Unofficial Fan Group

★ Mariano Vivanco, 2007 Dieux du stade photographer, born in Lima, Peru 1975

★ [http://www.marksimpson.com/blog/category/sporno/ Mark Simpson on Dieux du Stade and 'Sporno'