Category: Dutch Design

Does your City has it’s own Briefs? (Dutch Design 58)

First a little language exercise: I needed a proper title for the post and tried Google Translate to get a proper English translation for the Dutch word “onderbroek” (litterally “underpants”). I got the following results with Google: 1) panties, 2) underpants, 3) briefs, 4) knickers, 5) pants and 6) drawers….Off course I could check out the Urban dictionary for each of these words, but instead tried a Google Images search for them. Then it became clear soon: Briefs it should be…

The Hague has his own comics subculture in the form of a series of comic strip books around “Haagsche Harry” You see him in the first photo here above. He uses the local dialect to comment on what is happening in and around The Hague. Since The Hague is the center of Dutch Government, he doesn’t refrain from commenting Dutch politicians and even sometimes with mild humor comments on the Dutch Royal Family.

Recently 9 students at the The Hague ROC business school adopted the idea to introduce Green Yellow Briefs. Green and Yellow are the colors of the City of The Hague. Actually the briefs are white because of the costs involved to create them in Green and Yellow would be a bit too high. However they do have a Haagsche Harry badge in green and yellow applied to the front and “Ut Groen Geile Broekkie” – or Green Yellow Briefs – written over the back.

Ut groen geile broekie

Yesterday the briefs were officially introduced by the initiators, Marnix Rueb who created Haagsche Harry and the self proclaimed Night Mayor of The Hague, nicknamed Haagsche Bom.

Sources (mainly in Dutch):

  1. Haagsche Harry‘s home page (Like he says in The Hage dialect: “Haumpeits”).
  2. Hofstijl article.
  3. Green Yellow Briefs home page.
  4. Haags Allerlei article.

Dutch Design (57): The Dutch Dress Guerrilla Marketing Babes leave FiFa with Egg on its Face

Part 1 of the story:

Bavaria, a small Dutch beer brand engages the stunning Dutch wife of one of the Dutch football (or soccer if you wish) players, Sylvie van der Vaart, to present its new marketing tool, The Dutch Dress (originally they coined it the Dutchy Dress).

You get The Dutch Dress free whenever you buy a crate of their beer, but you can buy it as well without the beer. Over 200k dresses have been sold by now.

The presentation of the dress gets a bit of attention already.

Sylvie announced she will wear the dress at the WorldCup matches…some journalists already whisper that will cause havoc with the Dutch Football Association, because their main sponsor is another beer brand. Noteworthy a brand that doesn’t hesitate to do some guerrilla marketing of its own.

Part 2 of the story:

The Dutch beer label provides a couple of Dutch and South African Babes with free tickets for the match Denemarken-Holland.
They enter the stadium disguised as fans of the Danes. During the match they strip down to the Dutch Dress and start singing. Several heads up shots follow.

Officials of the FiFa order them to leave the stadium, because the head sponsor of the WorldCup is another beer brand and this is forbidden. They do not comply immediately. Thereupon the babes are taken into a room of the stadium for interrogation by the South African Police. The South African babes are released after interrogation, but the Dutch babes allegedly organizing this ambush advertising campaign are arrested the next day and taken to the police station for further interrogation. Their passports are taken in and they have to go on trial and could face 6 months of jail, because Ambush Advertizing is against the law in South Africa….changed so by virtue of the contract South Africa signed with FiFA to get the WorldCup to Africa.

The Dutch foreign minister is already taking diplomatic steps and requested the South African ambassador explanation.

An English television reporter seems sacked because of he allegedly had provided the tickets for the ladies from his ticket allocation for members of his family…

Here is the Youtube footage of the act itself:

Questions

Off course this is a variant of guerrilla marketing. I love it! Not only advertises it the beer label, but also the fact that our Dutch ladies are stunning creatures. But should you be labeled as a criminal for this? Apart from a very tiny Bavaria label in the dress there is no clear Bavaria logo. An orange dress is a dress is a dress…nothing else..

South Africa has specifically enacted anti Ambush Advertising laws when they signed up with FiFa for this WorldCup. If this is true we should start to boycott FiFa. For South Africa this could mean that it sinks in the esteem of the international public opinion, just because it has already a history of lack of freedom of speech. It should never have given in to this requirement.

Does FiFa need this to protect it’s rights? My suspicion is FiFa’s actions just get the opposite of what they tried to achieve, because of the outcry their action creates in social media.

What is your take?

Update
On June 22, 2010 the prosecutor dropped all charges in the South African court after a delay of 3 hours. Reportedly so instructed by the South African Government and also reportedly because Bavaria and Fifa had reached an undisclosed agreement.

Dutch Design (56): Head over to Sudeley Castle

Head over to Sudeley Castle? Why? What with this awful skull?

I’ll tell you:

  1. Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds (UK) is worth a trip to the UK in it self. Especially when it is late spring / early summer when it’s beautiful garden is at its peak. I know, because I visited it once in the 90ies myself and have fond memories of that visit. Moreover, if you are a garden enthusiast, you should combine a visit to Sudeley Castle with a visit to Kiftsgate Court Garden and to Hidcote Manor.
  2. The castle is a beauty. Part of it still inhabited as a residence. Part of it artful ruins that act as beautiful backdrop for some exceptional climbing roses. Sorry, I don’t confess it here often, but I’m a real rose lover!
  3. If you are interested in British history, take a tour inside the castle and you will learn a thing or two.
  4. And now Sotheby’s has deemed Sudeley Castle worthwhile as a backdrop for a sales exhibition of 25 pieces of contemporary artists that runs until August 1, 2010 (and thus is combined with the garden’s high season).

Situated in the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire, the partially ruined Sudeley Castle thrived during Tudor times as a royal household for Queen Katherine Parr but suffered damage during the Civil War. Since its restoration in the 1830s, it played host to many of the greatest politicians of the Victorian age. Sudeley is today the home of Lady Ashcombe and the Dent-Brocklehurst family, who are dedicated to the regeneration of the castle and its gardens, with a particular emphasis on environmental sustainability. Since 2005, Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst has staged a series of contemporary art exhibitions at Sudeley including Vertigo and Reconstruction and the success of these shows has resulted in the forthcoming collaboration with Sotheby’s.

One of the eye catchers is the Huge Sudeley Bench by Pablo Reinoso

Among the contemporary artists is Dutchman Joep van Lieshout of Atelier van Lieshout or AVL whose Wellness Skull is on exhibition:

Wellness Skull represents a highpoint of AVL’s provocative creations. The human skull – universal symbol of knowledge, wisdom, evolution, and eternal token of fugitive life – is transformed into a center for indulgence and relaxation. The upper cranium houses a fully working sauna and the lower section offers a bath/shower facility. The pierced eye sockets provide ventilation on the inside, whilst delivering a dramatic haze of steam when viewed from the outside. Commenting on the bizarre functionality of this giant memento mori, Joep van Lieshout, founder of the atelier, states: ‘the heavenly power is the big unknown, the death of the hereafter, the skull of the physical shell of the mind. The earthly power is an economical power. Money plays an important role in our contemporary society. Gradually faith loses all importance and is replaced by an alternative ‘self experience’, through travelling, sporting and wellness centres.’

In the meantime the Wellness Skull has traveled a bit: Here are photos I took  when it was on exhibition in Vienna:

With the Karlskirche in the back

Combining Art and Garden is excellent Destination Marketing

It’s not new, a sales exhibition of sculpture has been done many times, but an outdoor sales exhibition of modern design is reasonably new. I believe it is an extra ordinary idea to bring together three power houses: A destination powerhouse like Sudeley Castle, a curating powerhouse like Sotheby’s and a Gallery powerhouse like the London based The Carpenter Shop Gallery that traditionally has strong ties with the Dutch design scene….

Ah and -very modern- Sudeley Castle has a Twitter account

Dutch Design (55): Oh, Yes It’s that time of the year again…Dutch and Football

I have to confess that I’m not so much a football (or “soccer-” for my readers based in the USA) fan, although it is the National Sport number 1 of The Netherlands. This type of shirt has been around before. I has some Football is War connotation, but is definitely not so provocative as these Photographs for the European Championships in 2008, or this Muslim Lady with the AanvAllah T-Shirt for the same series…and yes visiting a World Championship, I have to admit, is a form of cultural travel as well.

Via Ads of the World

Good photo by photographer Milan Daniels

A Good Example of the use of Persona (Dutch Design 54)

Hotel- and other marketeers tend to advise the hoteliers to use persona in the communication with potential guests. A persona is a character or situation a possible guest can relate with.

Tomorrow a new furniture design label, Lonc, Living Products, will be introduced by two Dutch designers here in The Hague. At the same time they will introduce their new Seaser Chair (see the first photo).

In their press kit I found a couple of ancient style postcards that give a good example of the various associations the potential chair buyer can have with this product. You could apply same with some creativity for your hotel communication.

For the stylish Art Nouveau / Art deco lover


For the stylish Diva

For the lover of Dutch masters of painting

For the lover of the Middle East

For the Barby Lover

and they thought of the Boomers (and older)

Mighty clever huh?