Olympic Clampdown On Ambush Marketing
Olympic venues will be protected from marketing stunts during London 2012 after organisers announced measures against unauthorised trading around the venues.
Sponsorship money for the Games contribute more than half of the £2bn needed to stage the event, so organisers intend to avoid any unauthorised association to the brand, that would detract from the rights of the official sponsors.
The consultation document, released this week, reveals that all unauthorised billboard adverts, posters, flyers, give-aways and projected, moving and aerial advertising, within a few hundred metres of the Olympic and Paralympic venues, will be banned.
The regulations are also applicable to road race routes.
During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, 36 women wearing identical clothing were ejected from a football match after an ambush marketing tactic by a Dutch beer promotion, detracting the worth of the competitions official beer Budweiser, who paid millions for the deal.
The proposed measures will only be implemented on a small area around the venues, and only around the time the events are taking place.
Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson, said: ‘Sponsorship is part of modern international sport providing a vital source of funding. They aim to strike the right balance between preventing unauthorised advertising and trading that damage the rights of the sponsors and enabling businesses to operate as usual’.
