1 August 2010Copyright

Orange disorder comes to World Cup

Despite pursuing an active campaign to protect its sponsors’ privileged positions in the run-up to the soccer World Cup in South Africa, tournament organiser Fifa nonetheless fell victim to ambush marketing during the tournament itself.

The trouble started when 36 young women turned up for the game between Holland and Denmark in orange mini-dresses carrying the logo of Dutch brewer Bavaria. The women were ejected from Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium, and two were arrested under the Merchandise Marks Act.

The act provides that: “No person may use a trade mark...in a manner which is calculated to achieve publicity for that trade mark and thereby achieve special promotional benefit [without authorisation].”

This means that companies may not even use their own, non-infringing trademarks for a protected period (the World Cup) if they intend to derive “special promotional benefit”.

Ansheuser Busch’s Budweiser was the official beer of the World Cup, while Bavaria had previously found itself in trouble for a similar stunt at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Criminal charges were eventually dropped against the two arrested women, but not before Bavaria had obtained more publicity from the accompanying controversy than it could ever have hoped for.

WIPR spoke to Fifa about its plans to deal with ambush marketing in our January/February issue, which is available on the WIPR website (www.worldipreview.com).

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