English speaking readers may know the "Dieux du Stade" under the name "Locker Room Nudes", which obviously is not the translation of the orginal French title.

Why does the successful coffee-table book published in the US in 2005 have two different titles?
Why do I think that both of these titles are erroneous?

Dieux du Stade 2004, the big launch

The first Dieux du Stade calendars published from 2001 to 2003 were quite successful. They sold well, but were certainly not as the best-sellers that they have become today.

Yet, for the 2004 edition, the management of the Stade Français rugby club decided to ramp up the marketing. They were betting a lot of money in the production of a glossier calendar that would be published along with a DVD of the making of the calendar.

Renowned photographer François Rousseau was hired in 2003. He was famous for taking beautiful pictures of male bodies. In fall 2003, the calendar was released, along with the DVD.

Parts of the videos from the DVD were aired on numerous TV channels, in France and abroad. This was a huge marketing success. They rugby players were invited in talk shows, the calendar sold 160,000 copies in France, and the Dieux du Stade phenomenon was launched.

Creating "Dieux du Stade, le livre" (the book)

So, it was decided to get the boys naked once more, to shoot a 150-page book. The new shooting actually took 3 months, but the book was published in September 2004 in France.

Managers of the Stade Français noticed that there was a huge demand from abroad to get the calendar, the book and the DVD. But it was too late to ship the 2004 calendars in foreign countries. The calendar dated 2005 was actually already out in France.

Undeterred, Max Guazzini, President of the Stade Français rugby club, made a deal with prestigious American publisher Rizzoli. The book would start selling in July 2005 and be published under Rizzoli’s “Universe Publishing” brand. The DVD would also start selling in the US at the same time.

In order to pump up the buzz, Guazzini even got long-time pal Madonna to write the foreword of the English edition.

 

Locker Room Nudes / Dieux du Stade: The French National Rugby Team (But it now from Amazon.com)

Dieux du Stade DVD : Making of 2004 Calendar (But it now from Amazon.com)

But how should the book be titled?

It was decided to make the English title much plainer: instead of literally translating " Les Dieux du Stade" into "The Gods of the Stadium", it was decided to call it "Locker Room Nudes".

Obviously, the new title was very telling. But I kind of regret this: there was no more reference to either sports or rugby. Just some guys running around a locker room, naked.

True, the translation of the original title was complicated, as the French title is a play on word between the name of the rugby club to which the players belong "Le Stade Français" and the French expression "les dieux du stade" (the gods of the stadium").

This expression is commonly used to refer to exceptional sports athletes. The roots of this expression are in Ancient Greece, as my previous entry Does "Dieux du Stade" mean naked rugby in French? explains.

Locker Room Nudes says too much and too little

So, it was decided to get a plain title that would be frank about the nature of the photos, "Locker room nudes”. But in order to bring back some context, the publishers add the original French title, as well as reference to rugby. Huh? Complicated, right?

So we had something like “Locker room nudes” + “Dieux du Stade” + “Rugby guys”. As expected, it was too complicated, and the same book ended being inventoried under two different names:
-    “Locker Room Nudes: Dieux De Stade The Rugby Players of Stade Francais Paris and Their Guests”
-    “Locker Room Nudes / Dieux du Stade: The French National Rugby Team”

And both titles were erroneous. Can you see why?
-    The first one gets the original French name wrong. It is spelled “Dieux de Stade” instead of the actual correct form “Dieux du Stade”
-    The second one implies that the book stars the national rugby team, while it is the Parisian “Stade Français” rugby club players who are the main models.

As a result, you have dozens of people going on Google every day to search for “locker room nudes”, “naked French rugby team”, or “Dieux de Stade”. Well, if you stumbled upon this Dieux du Stade blog while typing these words, welcome!