Media worldwide these days are not only talking about Germany’s convincing 4-0 win over Australia or England’s goal keeper Green who thought he was bowling. A lot is being written about the 36 Dutch and South African babes who have been thrown out of stadiums by FIFA officials and brought to the police office for interrogation threatened with a six month’ jail sentence.
Dutch beer brand Bavaria committed this commercial crime, as FIFA defines it. Because Budweiser is the main sponsor of the World Curp 2010 in South Africa, no other beer brands are allowed in and around the stadiums. Bavaria avoided this rule by sending 36 sexy ladies into the stadiums, stripping and showing their ‘Bavaria Dutch dresses’. Peter Swinkels, marketing director of Bavaria, knows how public opinion (and even more important: men’s brains) works and knew the world would find out within a day that Bavaria was behind this guerrilla campaign fitting perfectly in this ‘Umfeld’. Whether he expected there would be so much legal turmoil and probably damage to be compensated, I’m not so sure. But he did get the media attention he wanted, and it’s huge and even more important: memorable! I think and hope South Africa will be smart enough not to put the South African ladies in jail.
The FIFA can punish Bavaria, but in consumer marketing the public in the end decides: Bavaria won the World Cup already! Brilliant idea!
Let’s hope organizations somehow learn from this. It’s more and more the people who decides what works and what not. Hence the strong rise of social media. Bottom-up is the new trend, top-down is passe.
Ps. Wanna strip for your husband? You can order the Dutch dress via www.bavaria.nl (think not on .com); just first fill in your date of birth.
Open Up 
‘Don’t outspend them, just outsmart them.’ That’s just what Bavaria did.
I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to see that the police is working for a beer brand. As fas as I can see, the girls didn’s break any law. Or is there any southafrican law prohibiting orange dresses?
Smart exposure for Bavaria. With regard to scoring power, the dutch are teaking the lead.
There might be a law regarding South Africans in this respect. As far as I know it’s just the SA ladies (33 vs 3 Dutch) who had been threatened to be put in jail.
To be honest I think it won’t happen anyway. Also, I would suggest that SA takes it up with Bavaria, the ladies had just been hired. But maybe the police is just buying time to have a closer and longer look at the dresses.