ORANGE YOU GLAD YOU'RE NOT IN STH AFRICA

In 2006, thousands of soccer fans showed up to the World Cup game between the Netherlands and the Ivory Coast wearing pants in the colors of the Dutch national team. The pants had been given out as promotional gifts by a beer company. FIFA, the governing body of international soccer, objected. It owned the trademarks for the team colors, and giving out pants in those colors was in FIFA’s view “ambush marketing” that was likely to confuse those who saw (or even those who wore) the pants into thinking that the soccer team had sponsored the pants. And in FIFA’s view, not only was giving out the pants illegal, but individuals wearing them were falsely suggesting some affiliation with the Dutch national team. Prohibited from wearing the pants into the stadium, more than one thousand fans dutifully took their pants off and cheered the Dutch team to victory in their underwear.(In fact, apparently the Dutch fans who were forced to strip down revealed that they were, on the whole, wearing orange underwear.)

FAST FORWARD TO SOUTH AFRICA 2010 -------->

According to reports in South Africa, 36 female Dutch fans were ejected from the Netherlands-Denmark World Cup 2010 match at Soccer City on Monday and questioned by FIFA regarding alleged ‘ambush marketing’.

South African newspaper The Star claimed that the women were all dressed in orange mini-dresses that were part of a Bavaria beer promotion campaign back in the Netherlands.

A spokesman from the company denied the charges and told the Johannesburg publication that the women had been held in a FIFA office for hours.

"It's a nice dress. Very fashionable,” Peer Swinkels, who pointed that there was no branding on the dress .

"In my opinion, people should have the right to wear whatever they want. We launched the orange item on April 30 on the queen's birthday, which we call Queen's Day. The Dutch people are a little crazy about orange and we wear it on public holidays and events like the World Cup."

One of the dress-wearers, Barbara Kastein, told the newspaper her story.

"We were sitting near the front, making a lot of noise, and the cameras kept focusing on us," Kastein said. "We were singing songs and having a good time.



"In the second half, about 40 stewards surrounded us and forced us to leave the stadium. They pushed us up the stairs, and one of the girls fell."

Kastein said that the girls were questioned by FIFA and then the police.

"The police came and kept on asking us the same questions over and over, asking if we worked for Bavaria. They said we were ambush-marketing and it was against the law in South Africa. They said we would be arrested and would stay in jail for six months. Girls were crying. It was bad.

"A police van took us back to our hotel and they wanted my passport. They made a copy and said they would investigate. They said they would sue me. All of this for wearing an orange dress."

WONDER IF FIFA WILL BAN THE IVORY COAST TEAM FOR PLAYING IN ORANGE .