The Dutch Strike First

As many of you may know, yesterday was a big day for football enthusiasts. Next year’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa came somewhat closer as the official draw for the tournament took place in Cape Town. (Check out the entire schedule here.) The Dutch are in Group E, together with Denmark, Japan and Cameroon. Generally speaking we can do the job, although being an ‘upperdog’ (as the big philosopher Co Adriaanse would call it) could have its disadvantages. Along with advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, Nike already took an advance on the coming Dutch World Cup victory with a neat street intervention on the Dam Square in Amsterdam.

The Dutch Strike First
Last week Nike performed this overnight ‘tape attack’ to “rise the orange feeling”. Under the motto ‘The Dutch strike first’, a group of handy boys used 6,000 meters of tape to create a tremendous tournament plan on the square in the heart of the capital. The path of the Dutch team entirely colors orange, from group stage to the cup. To ‘reserve’ the World Cup for Holland, they wrote ‘bezet’ next to the scheme, which means ‘occupied’, or ‘taken’. This also refers to the big free markets on the streets on Queen’s Day where people mark their place on the stoop weeks in advance, using the same term.

Check out the video to see more of this public space tape intervention.

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