If you scan the advertisement pages of a football programme, you usually expect to see heavy industry, construction companies, and local bars. But nestled in the bottom left corner of page 16 in the November 2013 FC Groningen booklet is an ad that breaks the mold: Drogisterij & Parfumerie Mulder.
What makes this advertisement fascinating is not just the product—perfume and drugstore items—but the location. The shop is located in the Marsdijk neighborhood of Assen, a city in the neighboring province of Drenthe, roughly 30 kilometers south of the Euroborg. Assen is globally famous for its motorcycle racing (the TT), but when it comes to football, the city falls firmly within the catchment area of the Pride of the North. A local, independent drugstore from Assen buying ad space in the Groningen matchday magazine proves that the club’s commercial and cultural gravity extends far beyond its own city limits.
Furthermore, this ad represents a specific era of Dutch retail. The logo in the background reveals it is a “DA” franchise—a cooperative of independent drugstore owners. In 2013, these local entrepreneurs were fighting a fierce battle against massive corporate chains (like Kruidvat) and the rapidly growing e-commerce sector. Advertising in a regional football programme was a way to build fierce local loyalty, targeting the female demographic in the stands or reminding male fans to pick up a gift on their way home from the match.
A Look into the Future
The retail landscape for independent drugstores in the Netherlands became incredibly brutal in the years following this advertisement. The DA umbrella organization actually went through a high-profile bankruptcy and restructuring in 2015, forcing many local franchise owners to close their doors, rebrand, or fight tooth and nail to survive. The survival of physical shops in neighborhood centers like Marsdijk relied entirely on the kind of deep community integration shown in this ad. Today, this small pink block is a nostalgic reminder of the local shopkeepers who tried to leverage the unifying power of regional football to keep their high streets alive.