Spraying champagne by Formula 1 winners is a cherished ritual.
It began, rather by accident, at the 1966 Le Mans 24 hour race when winning driver Joseph Siffert showered unsuspecting onlookers with champagne because he accidently popped open an overheated bottle.
A tradition was born when American winner Dan Gurney deliberately splashed champagne over the crowds at the next year’s event in 1967
The reasons it all started was that, way earlier, in 1950 – the year that the world championship was formed – the French Grand Prix took place at Reims.
Since this happened to be in the heart of the Champagne region, both Paul Chandon Moët and Fredric Chandon de Brailles – as keen fans of motor sport – got involved and offered a jeroboam of Moët et Chandon to the winner Juan Manuel Fangio .
Thereafter, they extended this to most prestigious motor sport events.
Rituals may be born by accident but have to be celebrated, repeated and institutionalised to become part of a brand’s dense and rich web of aspirational associations.
Brand Ritualism ,a sociological phenomenon, helps to define the ‘in-crowd’ from the rest. A living legendary brand will inevitably have myth, history, ritualism and an adoptive framework associated with it.
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