So the travelling army of Dutch football fans have been ordered to cheer on their national team in their pants by joyless FIFA executives.

In by far the best story to have emerged from the early stages of the World Cup, Dutch brewer Bavaria (which is not an official sponsor of the event) created this summer's must have fashion accessory - bright orange lederhosen-style trousers complete with Lion's tails (Dutch football symbol) and super-size pockets (for carrying more beer, of course). What a completely brilliant idea. Totally tuned into the audience. Which self respecting Dutch fan wouldn't want a pair of orange trousers in which to follow their team's fortunes?

Unfortunately, Budweiser, or more precisely Anheuser Busch, (which is an official sponsor) and FIFA (which runs the competition) had a distinct sense of humour failure.

Because the trousers carried Bavaria's logo, FIFA security guards required around one thousand fans to dump their trousers in a skip before entering the ground and watching the team play in their pants.

Cue multiple representatives of the sports sponsorship industry to be interviewed by the world's media to explain how this evil act is an example of Ambush Marketing. Seems much more harmless to me. Someone at Bavaria, or their marketing agency, just had a really great idea to participate in this summer of football - bravely, the client backed it - and it caught the popular imagination. Its as simple as that.

And from a PR perspective who advised Budweiser and FIFA that the best course of action was to make the Dutch sit in their pants to watch the game? Yes, that'll fix it for sure, none of the thousands of media present (sports reporters, admittedly) will notice an army of Dutch fans in their pants. Wait a minute, let me just consult my crisis management manual, perhaps that'll be under P for pants risks, or O for orange trousers crisis? And, they are trousers for goodness sake, they'll be sitting on them for most of the match, who'll see the logo in a wall of orange?

There are times in life when you have to take it on the chin. Especially when you are a big and successful company. This was one of them.

The advice should have been, 'go with it', or you'll create a huge story where there is none, and end up looking like a bitter and twisted loser (which probably wasn't the reason you sponsored the World Cup in the first place).

To compound matters this relatively lightweight story has now drawn the spotlight in a negative way on the controlling influence that major sponsors exert on global events.

All of which gets away from the reason the whole promotion worked so well. Because it was the best idea. If Budweiser really wants to get even, go find the marketing exec who came up with this idea and offer them a job.