Orange marketing
by
Marcel Van Silfhout |
Arrest of ‘Bavaria Babes’ raises a storm of protest
At last, some good news for the Dutch. The orange team booked a place in the second round of the World Cup in South Africa. After beating Denmark and Japan, nobody complains about the somewhat hesitating style of the Netherlands anymore. All the soccer giants like France, Germany, England, Spain and Italy suffered loss of face, but the Dutch didn’t (yet). However, when everything was going so well on the ground, something was amiss off the field. How on earth was it possible for the South African police to arrest two young Dutch women for wearing orange dresses?
It started as a funny, typical Dutch story. Thirty-six blonde women, described as ‘Bavaria Babes’ stepped in between the Danish supporters, but when the game started they took off the Danish clothes and displayed their attractive orange dresses they had underneath them. And ‘Orange,’ as you might know, isn’t only the colour and name of the Dutch Royal family, it’s also the colour of our soccer team. So, Bavaria, a famous beverage brand in Holland, still brewed by the original southern Dutch family Swinkels, brilliantly planned a so-called ‘ambush’ or ‘guerrilla marketing’. Many photographs of the girls were taken, free media attention achieved.
Then the marketer’s dreams were dashed: The ‘Bavaria Babes’ were removed from the stadium by Fifa officials. Once again, the media attention all over; marketing mission accomplished. Fifa had warned earlier that it had forbidden all possible ways of ambush marketing.
The organisation, which has a $40-60 million exclusive sponsorship contract with the American beverage brand Budweiser, enforced severe measures to protect its sponsor’s exclusivity. Its staff personnel told the girls that they weren’t allowed to be in the stadium in their orange dress. The Bavaria Babes then rightfully asked, “why not, it’s just a dress?” There was no logo or brand name on the dresses to give a hint of Bavaria. Even the sash around the dress, in the colours of the Dutch flag, couldn’t be seen as something connected to the Dutch beverage brand. If there was any link between the girls and the Dutch company it was merely the airfare paid by Bavaria. They were given 36 logo-free orange dresses in order to dress themselves and 34 other blondes. In other words, it’s a perfect example of ‘ambush marketing,’ something many other Dutch brands like Heineken have mastered.
Some asked why the Dutch are so good in this sort of marketing. It’s an old typical Dutch habit to see how rules can be bypassed without violating the law. Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that the overpopulated Netherlands, for many decades, has been a country with a bizarre number of detailed rules and restrictions. That’s the price of having so many people in such a tiny country. The best way to survive this over-exaggerated total control is not to take all the rules seriously anymore.
Nevertheless, global brands like Heineken have refined all kinds of cheap guerrilla marketing techniques into a sort of art form. This explains the storm of protest and angriness in the Netherlands over the ultimate power play of Fifa. Why attack a small sympathetic beverage brand that shows us mainly how creativity and humour can entertain the world? What’s all that fuss about? While the Dutch took the whole episode in their stride as one-off an incident what enraged them were the arrests. A few days after the cute Bavaria Babes were ushered out of the stadium, two of them were arrested in the middle of the night by the South African police.
They might face three years in jail if a South African court prosecutes them. The Dutch are outrageous. The quality newspaper NRC Handelsblad, which seldom writes a sharp comment, accused the Fifa and its chairman Steff Blatter of being a modern version of cruel commercial dictatorship. And, if this wasn’t enough, the newspaper under the title ‘World soccer junta’ asked itself if the Netherlands have to go on with being a candidate for hosting the World Cup soccer in 2018.
“The World Cup has taken over the power of the sovereign Republic South Africa, if the Fifa goes on with this, the Netherlands shouldn’t want to organise it,” the paper said. The central and judicial focus point in the critical approach of the NRC is that in order to maintain commercial sponsor contracts, Fifa should not become part of maintaining law and order. If orange dresses are a violation of Fifa laws, Fifa and Bavaria lawyers should resolve the issue. If a fine has to be imposed on Bavaria, it’s okay; that’s all in the game. But arresting people for such a thing as protecting commercial sponsor’s interests is a serious violation of civil freedom and sovereignty.
The Netherlands, for centuries known as a country with high standards of judicial practice and knowledge, can not allow the Fifa to go along on this way. For this reason the Dutch embassy in South Africa rightfully interfered. Of course, football is big business; it still should remain to be a game.
(Marcel van Silfhout is an investigative reporter working for public Dutch Television)
Oman Tribune |
Other comment for Marcel Van Silfhout
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