Being in South Africa to watch the World Cup must be an amazing experience. Sitting next to a fat, sweaty, drunk football fan might put a damper on the experience. Which is why the Johannesburg police should have left alone the 30 or so women who wore orange miniskirts during Monday’s Netherlands-Denmark match in an apparent stunt marketing effort for Netherlands-based Bavaria Beer.
Two of the women, who convinced 34 other women to don the orange outfit, known as the Dutch Dress, were arrested for allegedly breaking the country’s ambush marketing laws. One of the women, Barbara Castelein, works in marketing as her LinkedIn profile indicates. She is also referenced on Support Our Beer Babes, a Dutch website which has an online petition to support the women who were booted from Monday’s game.
Protesting the arrest, Netherland’s Foreign Minister Maxine Verhagen told the De Telegraaf newspaper, “If South Africa or Fifa want to go after a company for an illegal advertising campaign, they should start a legal case against the company and not against ordinary citizens who are walking around in an orange dress.”
Right on, sista! Seriously. A bunch of hot, miniskirt-clad women in the stands? What’s wrong with that? We think you should arrest the shirtless, smelly, beer-bellied guys instread.
