Champions League final 2014: Heineken organises shoe sale so women 'leave men in peace'

Because what woman in Brazil would want to watch football?

A clip from the advert. (Heineken/YouTube)

Men like football and women like shoes. Women will stop men watching football so they must be distracted with shoes.

That pretty much sums up Heineken’s latest advertising campaign in Brazil, where the beer company has genuinely organised a giant shoe sale during the Champions League final.

Brazilian chain Shoestock will be holding a half-price event at its shops for three hours on Saturday, hoping for a glut of football-shunning female customers leaving their boyfriends and husbands in peace.

A statement on the website of advertising firm Wieden + Kennedy said: “The goal of this campaign is for soccer fans to forward the news to their girlfriends and wives, convincing them to enjoy the sales while they enjoy the best of European soccer with their friends.”

It seems “friends” do not include women either, who presumably have no interest in watching Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid.

In the advert, a voice-over announces the sale with pictures of different kinds of high-heeled shoes before a screen comes up with a button allowing viewers to "tell their wife".

“The idea is to help guarantee men time to watch the game on Saturday afternoon,” W+K creative director Otavio Schiavon told Adweek.

“So we're going to provide an argument that will make it so their wives or girlfriends have something interesting to do during the game. He's going to surprise her with news about a shoe sale. And she, in turn, can leave him to watch the UEFA Champions League final.”

Heineken has played a safer game in the UK, where the campaign revolves around a man’s adventurous “road to the final”.

He arrives just in time to find an attractive girlfriend handing him a Heineken, naturally.

In a press release, Heineken described the Brazilian campaign as “entirely good-natured”, adding that it would “generate conversation”.

It has certainly done that.