Rule bans 'ambush marketing'

Companies here will be prevented from engaging in "ambush marketing" ahead of and during the Beijing Olympics, in a bid to protect the rights of official sponsors, a spokesman for the Games' organizing committee said yesterday.

Chen Feng, deputy director of the marketing department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), said at a press meeting that a range of measures will be introduced to prevent the illegal practice.

"Ambush marketing refers to the attempts by firms that are not official Olympic sponsors to associate their products with the event so they can capitalize on the connection without paying for the right to do so," Chen said.

BOCOG and the China Advertising Association jointly issued an official anti-ambush advertising proposal yesterday, calling for "lawful, professional and ethical" practices by advertising practitioners to protect the rights of Olympic sponsors and the holders of intellectual property rights relating to the Games.