Dutch Fans Watch Game in Nothing but Underwear
Leave the lederhosen at home. That is the message one can take away from the Dutch fans after hundreds of them were told to take off their orange lederhosen displaying the name of Dutch brewery Bavaria before entering the stadium in Stuttgart for their team’s match against Ivory Coast. The fans watched the game in their underwear. Talk about a distraction for the fully clothed fans and players alike!
The lederhosen brigade was part of an ambush marketing effort sponsored by the Dutch brewery Bavaria. As is usually the case, FIFA went to full lengths to protect its sponsors’ good (or bad) names. In this case the sponsor being Anheuser Busch’s Budweiser, the official beer of the World Cup.
Markus Siegler, FIFA’s director of communications, said: “Of course, FIFA has no right to tell an individual fan what to wear at a match, but if thousands of people all turn up wearing the same thing to market a product and to be seen on TV screens then of course we would stop it.
“I don’t know exactly about what happened in Stuttgart, but it seems like an organised attempt to conduct a mass ambush publicity campaign was taking place.”
Oh, the horror.
This isn’t the first time the Dutch have tried covert, ambush marketing in the name of their nation’s beer. During the 2004 European Championships, hundreds of fans were forced to remove megaphone hats bearing the name Heineken. That led to an online marketing campaign this year featuring a unique way to sneak in those Heineken hats.
I’m all in favor of this type of ambush marketing. Next time the Dutch fans should all wear underwear with Bavaria or Heineken written on it. What will FIFA do, make them watch the games naked? Now that is a thought….
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Comments
By Dave Hamilton | June 18th, 2006 at 11:59 am 
The BIGGEST problem with this Cup by far is money-hungry corporations! They STINK to high Heaven. People should be allowed to ENJOY the matches, wear what they want (within decent public norms of course), and drink real beer instead of Budweiser horse piss!!!! And tickets to companies should be VERY limited unless attendees first pass an exam showing they are knowledgable about the sport and present video evidence that they are capable of being RABID in the stands!!!
Dave hamildav@yahoo.com
Posted from 
Germany
By mace | June 18th, 2006 at 12:20 pm that’s a funny mental note, tv broadcasting naked fans in the stadium HAHAHA
Posted from 
Malaysia
By Milo Riano | June 18th, 2006 at 5:00 pm How can groups in hoardes get sponsorhip for their uniform clothes if this greedy people police them? on the other hand, if they can afford the ticket why not the clothes?
Posted from 
Philippines
By Roland | June 18th, 2006 at 8:02 pm Here, here, Dave! Preach it from the mountain, brother.
Posted from 
United States
By B L | June 21st, 2006 at 6:03 pm Ridiculous. This wasn’t ambush marketing. Bavaria didn’t pass out the Laderhosen for free. The lederhosen were clothes that fans BOUGHT. They weren’t encouraged to wear them at the game, the fans received no benefit, and the effort wasn’t coordinated at all. There were likely THOUSANDS of people wearing NIKE clothes at the game, even though Addidas is the sponsor. FIFA should make everyone wearing NIKE clothing remove it as well. In the Mexico-Portugal game today, I saw some girl stand up on camera with a big fat NIKE swoosh on her shirt. I guess THAT was ambush marketing too?
These FIFA officials wallow in lameness.
Posted from United States
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