If you haven’t got a spare $40 million to become the official Beer sponsor of the World Cup like Budweiser, what do you do?
Bavaria Brewing produced uniforms for 1000 or so fans with their logo and sent them to the game.

But FIFA officials wouldn’t let the fans wear their Lederhosen into the game, so Dutch supporters watched the game in their underwear. They of course had to look after their sponsors.

Read the full story at the Guardian here, and from ESPN here.

Perspective: The irony of this ambush marketing is that the stories that flowed from the fans watching the game in their underwear has probably provided more publicity for Bavaria than they would have received from the mass of orange uniforms. The lesson is that just because you are the official sponsor, doesn’t mean you have the rights to every consumer conversation.