The Spiegel today reports that Dutch fans wearing shorts representing a Dutch beer brand were forced to remove them because they displeased one of the official sponsors of the 2006 World Cup, Budweiser. The Dutch fans were forced to watch the game in their underpants.
Over 1000 fans were “askedâ€? by guards to remove the “offendingâ€? orange shorts that Dutch fans themselves who bought the trousers with the points off of 12 cans of Bavaria beer and €7.95 to cover shipping & handling (the shorts come with the tail of a lion, Holland’s national symbol, and two extra large pockets for storing beer cans).
The decision to make more than 1,000 Dutch fans strip off last Friday is evidence of the extraordinary lengths to which Fifa has gone to protect the interests of World Cup sponsors - at the expense of ordinary fans. Fifa, however, says it has done nothing wrong and is entitled to defend itself against what it calls “ambush marketing”.
Absolute bullocks! From the negative PR to the viral image of fans watching in their undershorts, Budweiser would have been smart to simply downplay the creative “lionhosen� shorts dreamed up by the industry. Now I’m eager to try this Bavaria beer.
!
Want more examples of corporate sponsors playing corporately incorrect read what the Guardian offers:
• The softdrink police were on patrol during the cricket world cup in South Africa in 2003. Pepsi was one of the event’s four commercial partners and stewards searched fans’ coolboxes for its rival’s fizzy drinks. A Johannesburg businessman was evicted from one game for drinking a can of Coca-Cola. “I was told it was against the law,” he said. “It is unacceptable that law-abiding citizens be browbeaten and summarily ejected for quietly drinking a beverage that is not approved of by the official sponsors.”
• Pepsi also ruled at the 2004 Champions Trophy cricket tournament trophy, where matches were played throughout England. Fans were issued with a list of drinks and snacks they could take into grounds. Pepsi and its family of drinks, such as Tango, 7 Up and Abbey Well mineral water, were acceptable, but no other brands were permitted. There were also restrictions on fruit juices, iced teas and energy drinks. Only Walkers crisps were permitted. Walkers is owned by PepsiCo.
• In March 1998 Greenbriar high school in Evans, Georgia, US, sponsored a Coke In Education Day, with the whole curriculum built round Coca-Cola, including an economics lecture by the company’s executives and lessons on baking a Coca-Cola cake during the home economics class. The climax of the day was a school photograph in which all students pictured wore red and white Coca-Cola T-shirts spelling out the word Coke. At the last moment, however, one student, Mike Cameron, spoilt the fun by pulling off his shirt to reveal a Pepsi-plugging shirt beneath. He was suspended from the school as punishment.
• The Raja Casablanca football team was fined $15,000 in 2002 when its team members wore Coca-Cola logos on their shirts in the Caf (Conféderation Africain de Football) competition in Morocco. PepsiCo was one of the competition’s main sponsors.
