Brazil's favourite flip-flops hit political storm

Few wardrobe items are as Brazilian as a brand of bright rubber flip-flops.

- STORY: ANA IONOVA / NYT

Actress Fernanda Torres at the Golden Globes awards in Los Angeles on Jan 5.

(Mario Anzuoni / Reuters)

Millions of people slip on the ubiquitous sandals — made by the Brazilian company Havaianas — to go to the beach or lounge at home, to run errands or meet friends at the bar.

Even as political divisions have splintered Latin America’s largest nation, its unwavering love of Havaianas flip-flops was something most could agree on. “Everyone wears them,” the company’s slogan boasts. “Everyone loves them.”

That is, until Brazil's favourite flip-flop was suddenly swept up in a political firestorm.

The trouble started with the beginning of a new holiday campaign by Havaianas last week, starring popular Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres. In a commercial for the flip-flops, Torres playfully urges Brazilians not to start the New Year “on the right foot”, playing on a popular expression of good luck.

“Start the new year with both feet — both feet in the door, both feet on the road, both feet in the game,” said Torres, 60, whose performance in the Oscar-winning film I’m Still Here, about Brazil's brutal military dictatorship, catapulted her to global stardom last year and cemented her reputation in the country as a progressive icon.