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Solo Lucky Undies – Berlin
Author: DriveDrive – down under for the World Cup
Must say, this was one of the more surreal PR stunts we’ve done. Our objective was as follows: to get an Australian Socceroo fan over to Germany so that he could to string up a washing-line hung with giant-sized branded underpants outside Berlin’s key architectural monuments.
The underpants in question are vivid yellow y-fronts.
This came to us courtesy of the World Cup via our old friends Frank PR. They’ve been working alongside BMF, orchestrators of the ‘Lucky Undies’ campaign for Schweppes Australia – you know the one, the campaign that encourages fans to get behind Australia’s national team, the Socceroos, by donning a pair of bright yellow ‘Solo Lucky Undies’. Apparently it’s going very well.
Solo, a big seller for the heavy-weight drinks manufacturer, is the market leader of lemon soft drinks in Australia and is positioned as ‘a very masculine drink’. Its many TV commercials play to its overtly male image, the latest being “Game On” – since joining the Football Federation of Australia. When it turned out that Australia’s first game in the tournament was against Germany – well, everyone started getting really excited.
Drive Productions produced the stunt in Germany, creating a buzz around the World Cup in Berlin and simultaneously letting the German team know what they were up against. After ex-Germany player Paul Breitner’s comment about the national team knowing nothing about the Socceroos or the individual players, it’s just as well.
Now you’ve been primed you can see the footage for yourself on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehUCflJsAfE
The results were beyond expectations. The Brandenberg Gate is a former city gate and one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany, along with the other key locations chosen for the stunt: the Reichtag building, the notorious Checkpoint Charlie, the (remnants of the) Berlin wall and Alexander Platz in the old East part of the city. Needless to say, all these cultural bastions are extremely high security so getting the underpants in place was a considerable achievement. It’s not the sort of thing you get permission for in Germany.
The activity produced some seriously funny footage, some great press-worthy photographs and an overload of hilarious vox pops. Des Clarke, man of the moment, on the steps of the Reichstag wearing nothing but his scrungies made it all worth while.
He said: ‘I came to Germany to show them who the Socceroos are. Lets hope the Germans know their balls from their Undies’.
We said: 4 – 0