Ironically, I am one of those people that abruptly says, “yes” or “no” point blank at investigative interviewers when they ask a seemingly easy question.

I say doing this is ironic (and, to fully paint the picture, said interviewers these days are mostly on network television shows like my CBS Sunday morning go-tos, while I stand in the comfort of my kitchen) because we marketing communications professionals practice/preach in media training to do the very opposite — to keep the conversation going. Set the stage, allow dialogue, constructively contribute, give the interviewer a reason to ask you back.

Stretch your covid brain back to 2010, if you can, and remember that time when the International Federation of Association Football (somehow party-mixed to “FIFA” as its acronym) named the next two host countries at the same time? That is, the 2018 and 2022 tournament rights were awarded to Russia and Qatar, respectfully.

Fast forward to 2015 when the Justice Department indicted two dozen FIFA executives for their involvement in “a 24-year scheme to enrich themselves through the corruption of international soccer.” And how many blind FIFA executive eyes were turned towards the Human Rights Watch claim that more than 15,000 non-Qatari migrant worker deaths can be attributed to the construction of stadiums for the 2022 games?

Fast forward again, and 2022 World Cup play is underway for the first time in a Middle Eastern, Muslim country.

As the games kicked off on November 20, reporters were still asking if people were surprised to hear Qatari officials made a last-minute call two days earlier to ban beer in the stadiums.

Simply, “No.”

Back to my point, and seemingly why you started reading in the first place…

AB InBev owns the Budweiser brand and is said to have been paying FIFA $75 million dollars every four years to be official sponsor of the World Cup games.

That’s not just another FIFA partnership like Coca-Cola, Visa, Qatar Airways, Adidas (the game balls), and Hyundai-Kai. This is many corporate teams working many real hours the last 12 years to promote, deliver, and track the brand presence of alcohol in a country that bans booze (outside of hotel bars), having their work set fire before Morgan Freeman could even perform that weird opening ceremony performance.

AB InBev’s chief supply officer, Peter Kraemer, described logistics involved in transporting, storing, and commercializing its product in a region with no breweries, sweltering temperatures, and workers not otherwise trained in selling alcohol. And, you know, promoting sales without advertising the product.

As I said on one of the text strings I was on where this topic popped up, “I think it’s funny they put on a rouse about it for so long, they were never going to allow it!”

So back to the marketing line item.

Oh no, the world says, that’s so crazy the fans can’t have a cold beer watching a match! And how pissed would you be if you were one of those Budweiser marketing people?!

From my kitchen island, it looks like the AB InBev executive team will actually have the last laugh.

The corporate communications team handled the situation well, responding to press inquires with, “some of the planned stadium activations cannot move forward due to circumstances outside our control,” and, “as partners of FIFA for over three decades, we look forward to our activations of FIFA World Cup campaigns around the world to celebrate football with our customers”.

The Budweiser twitter account posted a now-deleted post in response to the news, “Well, this is awkward …” Relatable, I like it.

Later they issued a press release saying, “We will host the ultimate championship celebration for the winning country” and will ship the unsold tournament beer, product valued in the $70 million range, to the winning country. A follow-up tweet said, “New day, New Tweet. Winning country gets the Buds. Who will get them?”

Scramble event marketers and do what you do best.

🪄🌟

As Marketing Week columnist Harry Lang said, “Now Budweiser’s lawyers will be bathing in the tears of its brand team.”

While Budweiser may not pursue breach of contract legal action, you can be sure executives are reminding FIFA counterparts of the $112 million the company spent winning sponsorship rights. And at least Budweiser’s B2B partnership team won’t have to really forecast a double digit sponsorship fee agreement bump, like event planners globally are having to do (have you heard “supply chain issues” yet today?).

Someone is going to have to pay for that winning country’s party.

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Cindy Adams used to say, “only in New York, kids, only in New York”

My funny note to end this post:

When the alcohol ban articles started popping up on my text strings, my bestie said he’s left LA to camp out in London to watch the games (clearly his bosses think he’s great at his job to let him continent surf for months at a time the last two decades!🥂) because, “Quatar is no place for a gay alcoholic”.

Have truer words ever been spoken? 😂🏆