Ahh Guerilla marketing, it’s all good fun ‘til someone loses a passport, gets arrested, fined and faces legal action.

As you’re probably already aware, the FIFA world Cup is in full swing in South Africa. But what you might not be aware of is the 36 women thrown out of the Holland game, questioned, arrested, fined and threatened with jail time. For wearing orange dresses.

Personally, I don’t think many people can get away with wearing tangerine, but surely this is a case for the fashion police as opposed to the actual police?

Not if you’re FIFA.

You see while a lot of us in adland regard big sporting events as a chance to do some tactical advertising, the organisers of these events are getting increasingly tired of advertising smart arsery muscling in on the official action.

A good bit of eye-catching tactical mischief can not only get a client on a tighter budget in front of an audience of millions, but also gives the impression of a brand with a sense of humour.

FIFA, however, doesn’t appear to have a sense of humour. What they do have is lawyers.

They’ve already released the hounds on Bavaria, the Dutch brewer who distributed the offending dresses. And to be fair, Bavaria already have previous form – four years ago in Germany at the 2006 World Cup, a bunch of Dutch supporters ended up watching a game in their underwear after they were told to surrender their Bavaria branded lederhosen.

In April FIFA stopped local low cost airline Kulula airline from advertising itself as “The Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What.” Clearly this time they mean business.

One could argue Bavaria should have known better.

And the world is watching, in 1997 at the International Rugby League World Cup in France, during the Ireland v France game, underwear brand DIM deployed the DIM DIM Girls as ‘cheerleaders’ in the crowd. Dressed in their undies they obviously got quite a lot of attention. And got on the wrong side of the IRL.

The next IRL World Cup is in 2011. Dare the Dim DIM girls run the risk of having to hand over their outfits at the gate?

Question is, will this be the event that’s going to turn a bit of tactical advertising into something of, well, a home goal? It certainly ups the ante. I doubt it’s going to stop agency creatives from coming up with the ideas – after all, creatives do get a perverse sense of glee at messing with anything they know they shouldn’t. But are the previously brave clients going to be quite so cavalier? The appeal of a cheeky bit of guerilla advertising will lose a lot of its shine if the resulting law suit sends your company broke.

However it plays out – one thing’s for sure, this story, not unlike the World Cup itself, is gonna be worth watching.

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Tags: FIA, guerilla marketing, World Cup