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Two Dutch women accused of “masterminding” a recent ambush marketing campaign at the World Cup have had charges against them dropped. Barbara Castelein and Mirte Nieuwpoort were arrested after showing up with 34 other women at last week’s Netherlands vs. Denmark match wearing bright orange minidresses (orange is the Dutch color) paid for by brewing giant Bavaria. Castelein and Nieuwpoort were sent to South Africa to distribute the dresses and free tickets to blonde women (mostly from the Dutch-descended Afrikaner community) willing to wear them to the game. While it is understandable that FIFA (soccer’s worldwide governing organization) would be angry that Bavaria was trying to snag free publicity through its stunt, why the punishment for the women involved with this was so stiff is somewhat of a head-scratcher.
FIFA and the government of South Africa made it clear that ambush marketing would not be tolerated and would be treated as a crime (FIFA has to date filed over 2,500 lawsuits, dating from well before this World Cup). This is of course to protect the billions of dollars that official sponsors (in this case Budweiser) have invested in order to have sole advertising rights at the games. However, the harsh treatment of the women involved has made FIFA and Budweiser look rather petty and reinforced the view that the old boys’ club in charge of soccer is autocratic, sexist and driven solely by money.
Bavaria launched a similar prank at the 2006 World Cup involving Dutch men wearing orange lederhosen. These men were merely given alternate FIFA-approved orange shorts to wear and were neither expelled from the match nor arrested. Conversely, the women involved in the minidress stunt were harassed by both FIFA and the police and were threatened with being jailed for up to six months (the other women involved were ultimately not charged as FIFA considered them to be “innocent local girls”). Going after a group of women (but not the male lederhosen pranksters) who were otherwise not causing any problems makes FIFA look like a bully who is intolerant towards minor female offenders but will turn a blind eye to “boys being boys” in similar situations.
Although FIFA likely could have defused the situation by leaving the minidress-wearing women alone and fining Bavaria after the match (as the Netherlands’ foreign minister Maxime Verhagen suggested), they chose to smash their iron fist in order to prove that they are fully in charge of this World Cup and what they say goes. Instead of mitigating the effects of this stunt, FIFA unwittingly gave Bavaria tons of extra publicityand the viral spreading of this story over the internet has turned the tide of sympathy squarely towards the blondes and away from FIFA and Budweiser. While the women were technically breaking the rules, FIFA’s reactionary behavior disrupted a harmless and quite clever (albeit slightly sexist) flashmob and soured an event that would have otherwise been remembered fondly by its participants for years to come.
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Pretty girls.
I had never heard of that company until this happened. Good job on the free press, FIFA! I agree, though, their reactions to the two separate situations are very off-putting.
Drop-waist dresses often make girls with good bodies look like they are hiding a beer belly. And those hip bands sometimes make them look, as with the skinny girl right in the middle, like their hips are too small (or too big, depending). Should have used simple tight sheath dresses.
Awwww, who can take their criminal behavior seriously, they are just girls anyway. (sneers condescendingly)
I think it’s the point of who really matters here. Some people who took free tickets, or the company that was paying for it?
Or if the men’s incident was treated similarly harshly, it might be considered overreaction, but at least they’re making their stand. The inconsistency is what makes people question.
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