June 19, 2006

Ga rukken Budweiser

The PR disaster that is Budweiser’s sponsorship of the World Cup gets worse. As any fool knows, the Germans are serious about their beer, and being forced to drink the fermented rice concoction that is the US Budweiser (not to be confused with the real beer of the same name brewed by the Czechs) wouldn’t endear the brand to quaffing Teutons. The story is well covered elsewhere, but AdHurl has had the best slant on this story that I’ve seen so far.
If annoying the host nation weren’t enough, Budweiser’s reputation fell a couple more notches with the Dutch, the nation with the oddest dress sense in Western Europe (not helped by the garish orange which is their national football colour). Sympathy must therefore go to the poor Ivory Coast fans and neutrals having to witness 1,000 Dutch people standing in their skiddies, having been forced by Fifa officials to remove their trousers because they were branded with the logo of a Dutch beer. Poor old Bavaria beer is not an official sponsor, whereas Budweiser is.
One thing that many people in continental Europe will agree on: Budweiser is pants.

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