World Cup and Ambush Marketing.
I couldn't believe this when I read it this morning, I had to check it wasn't April 1st.
Apparently Dutch supporters when they went to watch their team play Ivory Coast, were ordered to take off their trousers as they bore the name of a beer - Bavaria - which is not an official World Cup sponsor. These supporters had to watch the match in their underwear! And this is not the first time this has happened.
At the cricket world cup in South Africa 2003, Pepsi were the sponsors and any one carrying a can of Coke had it confiscated. Pepsi did the same at the 2004 Champions cricket tournament trophy, the only foods and drinks allowed in were made by PepsiCo. The Raja Casablanca football team was fined $15,000 in 2002 when it wore shirts with Coca-Cola logos on their shirts, in a tournament sponsored by PepsiCo. A student in America was suspended from school, when he stripped his Coca-Cola shirt off to reveal a PepsiCo shirt at a photo-shoot, on a Coca-Cola sponsored education day.
I think this is fucking outrageous! And it looks like The Olympics in London is going to be part sponsored by 4 sponsors each stumping up £50m. So I fully expect to see the Macdonalds 100metres, all relay races sponsored by Cadbury Flake, with the baton shaped like the bar, we'll have the Nescafe High Jump (gives you a lift?) and Sumo wrestling sponsored by WeightWatchers.
The All New Pepsoid the Second!