World Cup. Penalty kicks, offsides, and ambush marketing. Ambush…what???
Yesterday, during the Netherlands vs. Denmark match, some beer shenanigans broke out. Broke out the orange miniskirts that is.
36 women switched out of their outer clothes to reveal orange miniskirts underneath. Bavaria NV (a large Dutch Brewery) has been selling special eight-packs of beer including the skimpy orange “Dutchy Dress” since April. Bavaria’s name is on a small blue tag at the bottom of the dress.
The problem? Budweiser is the official FIFA World Cup Beer Sponsor and as such is the only beer allowed to be sold and advertised inside the World Cup stadiums.
FIFA, quick to protect Bud’s multimillion dollar sponsorship immediately rounded up the orange skirt girls, took them out of the stadium and questioned them for several hours.
“FIFA has filed charges against the organizers of the ambush marketing stunt pulled during the Netherlands-Denmark match,” FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot told a press conference.
FIFA said the women were “used by a large Dutch brewery as an instrument for an ambush marketing campaign”, although the dresses had only a small tag with the beer’s brand on them.
The brewer had a different take on it. “FIFA doesn’t have a monopoly on orange,” the home color of the Dutch national team’s shirts, said Peer Swinkels, marketing director at Bavaria. “There wasn’t even a Bavaria logo on the dresses.”
Here is some video of the event: