Ambush marketing practices can be extremely varied. Therefore a categorization based on reported ambush marketing disputes may be useful to better understand the phenomenon. These categories are not legal categories but types of ambush marketing practices. One practice could for instance fall under two categories. Criteria used to differentiate between categories are not homogeneous which explains the difficulty in legislating against ambush marketing practices.
Parasitism to the Event
The following examples pertain to parasitism to the event:
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In 1977, the State of Delaware created without authorisation a lottery based on the outcome of the weekly games organised by the National Football League16.
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During the 1984 Olympics, Kodak sponsored the US track and Field trials whilst Fuji was an official sponsor of the Games17. In 1988, the situation reversed, Fuji sponsored the US swimming team whilst Kodak was an official sponsor.
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In 1988 as well, Wendy’s sponsored ABC’s television coverage of the games whilst Mc Donald’s was an official sponsor18.
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During the 1992 Olympics, Nike placed large murals of USA basketball team members Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley on the sides of buildings in Barcelona19. Nike was not an official sponsor of the Games.
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Canterbury, a manufacturer of rugby shirts, was the supplier of the All Blacks for many years. The New Zealand Rugby Federation changed supplier. Shortly thereafter, Canterbury issued and advertisement displaying a picture of the 1924 All Black team nicknamed the “Invincibles” with a comment: “One Jersey more than any other, captures the spirit of rugby”. Additional texts commented the exploit by the then All Blacks: “The 1924 Invincibles didn’t have big salaries. Just their passion for the game. And Canterbury Jerseys. In their famous British Isles tour the team created a record that still stands todays, etc...”20.
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During an Australian-New Zealand rugby match in 2002, two naked men streaked onto the playing field “wearing” a painted-on Vodafone logo21. Vodafone was not a sponsor.
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Coors became the official sponsor of the National Football League. It set up a billboard along a highway displaying the NFL logo and giving a daily tally of the number of days until the Super Bowl. Across the highway, a non-sponsor beer company erected its own billboard, showing the tag line “Our Super Parties, Our Beer”, on top of a football22.
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During the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, Telecom New Zealand issued advertisements in New Zealand newspapers displaying on a full page five words “Ring”, posted and coloured in the same way as the five Olympic rings23. Bellsouth was an official sponsor of the Games and a new entrant to the New Zealand telecommunications market.
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A group of hundreds of Dutch fans showed up wearing orange lederhosen displaying the name of the Dutch brewery Bavaria, in Stuttgart, to attend the 2006 World Cup match opposing the Netherlands to Ivory Coast. They were requested to take off their pants before entering the stadium24.
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The Austrian Reporter mentions the 20 by 8 meters billboard currently posted on Karlsplatz in Vienna, displaying a red and white three dimensional cube bearing, on its left face a Swiss flag, on the bottom face an Austrian flag and on the front face the “puma” logo. At the bottom right of the billboard bears the puma trademark with a reference to www.pumafootball.com. Adidas, not Puma, is the official sponsor to the Euro 2008 to take place in Switzerland and Austria.
More arguable examples:
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During the Salt Lake City winter Olympic Games, a farmer was threatened to pay USD 10’000.- as a license fee for creating crop circles in a field in the shape of the 5 interlocking rings25.
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During the same Olympics, small shopkeepers were reported to have been brought to court for referring to the Olympic Games.
These last examples show how difficult it is to set limits once sweeping rights are granted to stake holders.
Disparaging a Competitor
Disparaging usually comes in addition to parasitism. One example of ambush marketing practices mocking a competitor, perhaps to the point of disparaging the Competitor is the Lillehammer example given with the questionnaire. In reality it appears that the VISA/American Express dog fight was a longer story.
It started in 1992 during the Barcelona Olympics. Visa was an official sponsor and apparently obtained, as part of its sponsorship package, that official Olympic tickets and merchandise vendors only take VISA cards. American Express retorted with a frontal assault against the Olympics in a TV campaign saying : “The Olympics don’t take American Express”. At the same time, American Express started its well known campaign: “to visit Spain you don’t need a visa”. American Express then continued in relation to the Winter Games in Albertville which took place the same year with an advertisement displaying athletes and saying “if they want to enjoy the fun and games they don’t need a visa”26. The fight continued during the 1994 Lillehammer Games with the now famous “you don’t need a visa to go to Lillehammer”.
Perhaps American Express or retailers of tickets and vendors could have taken legal action against the Olympics for foreclosing the market. Whatever the legal answer, American Express chose other means: communication. An intriguing aspect of that example is that, ultimately, ambush marketing may not necessarily prejudice the event. American Express contributed to its publicity and audience as is often the case with ambush marketing practices.
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