Ambush Marketing At The Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are not only the grandest stage for the world's athletes, but also arguably the grandest stage for corporate marketers. While the athletes prepared for the competition of the Games, corporations prepared for the intense marketing blitz that accompanied the Games. As an event that commands the attention of the media and the entire world for two weeks every other year, the Olympic Games are the most effective international corporate marketing platform in the world, reaching billions of people in over 200 countries and territories. Some corporations, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Visa, Kodak and Xerox, paid a multi-million dollar fee for the right to be part of The Olympic Partner ("TOP") program. The TOP program, managed by the International Olympic Committee ("IOC"), grants sponsors the exclusive worldwide marketing rights in their product categories for both the Winter and Summer Games. Others will seek to associate their companies with the Olympics and capitalize on the attendant good will without authorization of the IOC or payment of the requisite sponsorship fees. This is commonly referred to as ambush marketing.Ambush marketing has, however, also been defined in a broader sense whereby a company does not seek to directly and intentionally ambush a competitor, but instead seeks to capitalize on the goodwill, reputation and popularity of a particular sport or event by creating an association without the authorization or consent of the necessary parties.This piece will identify the Olympic organizations that own and use the Olympic Games' intellectual property, how ambush marketing has been employed and challenged at prior Olympic Games and at the Beijing Games, and the legal issues surrounding ambush marketing.