| Games tempting target for ad ambush |
LONDON What do Danish footballer Nicklas Bendtner’s underpants and contact lens worn by British sprinter Linford Christie have in common? They featured in memorable unauthorised marketing stunts at major sports tournaments.
Sponsors channel billions of dollars into events like this month’s Olympics in London, but rival companies come up with all manner of wheezes to try to publicise their brand for free in s-called ambush marketing.
“It’s no longer just sport clothing companies or other industries that you might expect to have interest in, or engagement with, the Games,” said Arthur Artinian, a lawyer at Freshfields, Bruckhaus Deringer, the official legal services provider to the Games.
“It’s really now everybody. The sponsorship stakes are higher,” said Artinian, a London-based Australian who previously worked on the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
Eleven companies paid almost $1 billion for the international rights to sponsor the London Games and the 2010 Winter Games in Canada. London organisers have also signed up a further 41 backers, raising 700 million pounds ($1.10 billion)towards the cost of staging the Games.
British laws have been tightened to protect Olympic sponsors but other companies still seek to exploit any loopholes in what Artinian says is a “cat and mouse game”.
Reuters
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