World Cup beer stunt women face criminal charges

Two Dutch women face criminal charges in South Africa for their role in a beer marketing stunt during the Netherlands Denmark World Cup match.


The two, arrest on Wednesday morning and released on bail of around €1,000, are to appear in court on June 22.
The two were part of a group of 36 women who entered the stadium on Monday dressed as Danish supporters and later stripped off to reveal skimpy orange dresses – a free giveaway with Bavaria beer, which is not a sponsor.
It was originally claimed the girls were students, but later it transpired they had been paid by Bavaria to pull off the stunt.
Marketing
The crackdown on ambush or guerilla marketing is part of the South African authorities efforts to stop companies which are not official sponsors using the World Cup to promote their products.
According to the NRC, on match days shops around the stadiums are only allowed to sell products from Coca Cola and McDonalds and non-official souvenirs may not combine the South African flag, the words South Africa or the date 2010 with any mention of the World Cup.
Local lawyer Ian Jacobsberg told the paper he thought it unlikely the women will be jailed. But if it can be proved Dutch brewer Bavaria paid for the girls to pull of the stunt, it faces a stiff fine, he said.

Idea

According to the Parool, the Bavaria dress concept was dreamed up by a two-woman marketing team in Amsterdam, Marloes Nabben and Hannah de Groot, who wanted to make a football souvenir suitable for women.
‘Beer brands always focus on men so they are forgetting half the population,’ they told the Parool. ‘This was a great chance for us to reach women with a fun idea.’
By the start of the World Cup, all 200,000 dresses – given away free with eight cans of beer – had been snatched up.

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