USOC to advertisers:
Stop the ambush tactics
Calls out Subway and Verizon for spots alluding to Games
By Toni Fitzgerald
Feb 11, 2010
The top sponsors for the Winter Olympics, which kick off tomorrow in Vancouver, will pay some $100 million to use the Olympic logo and name in their advertisements.
But there are other brands that haven't shelled out a penny who are trying to align themselves with the Games through subtle and not-so-subtle advertisements, which have the U.S. Olympic Committee steaming.
Already the USOC has relayed its concerns to Subway and Verizon, two non-sponsors who make vague allusions to the Games in current TV advertisements.
The committee also issued a press release late last month reaming any company who uses so-called "ambush tactics" to associate its brand with the Olympics without paying for the rights.
Strongly worded press releases probably won't make a difference. The number of sly references will only increase as the Olympics begin, especially coming out of a recession that squeezed the deep-pocketed advertisers who have been with the Games for years.
Home Depot, Bank of America and General Motors, among others, dropped out following the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, just as the recession was cranking up.
Remaining sponsors are especially keen on protecting their Olympic ties, so the USOC has been proactive in warning rivals of those advertisers to step off.
McDonald's, for instance, is an Olympic sponsor, and Subway is one of its competitors. In the widely played Subway ad, '08 Beijing hero Michael Phelps swims north toward what the announcer terms "where the action is," an obvious reference to Vancouver.
The Verizon ad shows two guys speed skating, one of the big events of the Winter Games. Problem is, rival AT&T is an official Olympic sponsor.
And Pepsi, in one of the more clever ambush tactics of the Games, sent out a team to try to get crowds at the World Junior Hockey Championship to do a cheer that uses its name, a cheer the company hopes will be adopted at the Games. Coca-Cola, of course, has been an Olympic sponsor since 1928.
In addition to the ambush advertising uproar, here are some more Olympic news tidbits as the Opening Ceremonies approach:
* While yet another snowstorm battered the East Coast yesterday, Olympic organizers were dealing with quite the opposite problem: A dearth of snow.
Trucks and helicopters have been hauling in snow to the skiing and snowboarding venues in the week before the Games begin, but another obstacle is the surprisingly warm weather in Vancouver, with temperatures yesterday in the mid-40s.
* Snow isn't the only thing that may fail to materialize on the Vancouver mountains. Star U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn, one of the focal points of NBC's Olympic campaign, said yesterday that a deep shin bruise may keep her from competing in at least one of her five events.
Vonn crashed during practice at the 2006 Games, but since she's won two World Cup titles and appeared on last week's Sports Illustrated cover.
* And anti-Olympic protests in Vancouver are slated to begin tomorrow, including a Take Back Our City march scheduled for 6 p.m. local time. Those participating in the protest are splintered into everything from anti-poverty to pro-environment to Native American rights groups.
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