Olympic Competition: Ambush Marketers vs Sponsors

The Chinese authorities have responded with their usual subtlety. Between July 11th and September 17th the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic games will take control of all prominent advertising sites in the Chinese capital, including those at train stations and airports, and their use will be limited to official sponsors only. (In 1996, when the Olympics were staged in Atlanta, the city was plastered with ads by Nike, which was not a sponsor.) Athletes will be banned from taking their own drinks into the Olympic Village to “protect sponsors’ rights”. And at each event if any spectators manage to get past the officials with unofficial food, drinks or clothing, broadcasters will be obliged to avoid showing them in close-up.

Overzealous enforcement can also result in bad press—as with the orange plastic Lederhosen given out by Bavaria, a Dutch brewery, to Dutch fans before a match at the 2006 football World Cup. Officials asked fans to remove the offending garments, to placate Budweiser, a rival beer brand that was the tournament’s official sponsor. Many fans ended up watching the match in their underwear, and the resulting fuss generated even more publicity for Bavaria.

Coca-Cola, which has sponsored every Olympiad since 1928, says sponsorship provides “a way to connect with people around the world at a very personal, emotional level”. But if that means depriving spectators of their half-finished Pepsi as they enter a stadium, the emotions may not be happy ones.