This Bud’s For You, But Don’t Tell Anyone

Eager to tap into lucrative foreign markets and knowing many soccer lovers are beer lovers, the makers of Budweiser beer made a logical move two years ago - they signed on as sponsors of the 1998 World Cup.

Only one little problem.

In France, the host country for the huge soccer tournament, almost all forms of alcohol advertising are illegal. That includes those big billboards lining the field and staring out at billions of TV viewers worldwide.

The World Cup opens June 10, 1998, and lasts for a month - drawing a cumulative TV audience of 37 billion viewers. Anheuser-Busch is one of 12 World Cup sponsors, earning it the right to call Budweiser the “official beer” of the World Cup - and, the company hopes, position two billboards on the rim of the field.

Standing in its way is the 1993 Ervin law which greatly restricts advertising for both tobacco and alcohol.

When Anheuser-Busch, the world’s largest brewer, signed up in 1995 as a sponsor for next year’s World Cup, it was aware of the Evin law, but hoped it could get France to make an exception.