ABSTRACT
There are repeated examples of companies trying to ambush major sports events. Ambushing refers to companies who make it look like they are sponsors of an event when they are not (they have not paid for the right to be so). For example, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, 36 women were thrown out of their country’s (Holland) game against Denmark for allegedly ambushing the World Cup by wearing orange dresses, the colour of Holland’s team but also the colour of the Bavaria Beer Company. At the time, Bavaria denied being responsible for this ambush strategy despite their history of providing Bavaria orange pants to spectators as “gifts” during the 2006 FIFA World Cup (Madison, 2009; Guardian, 2010). In addition, during the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Wellington retailers were refusing to remove references to the national team, the “All Blacks”, such as a local clothing store which had a small sign for an “All Black Rack” or a local strip club’s “All Black” uniforms, despite the potential threat of legal action (Nichols, 2011a, 2011b). However, one-off sports events are not the only setting for ambush marketers. For example, 24,000 cans of Pringles chips were distributed to fans arriving at Wimbledon on 1 July 2009. The Pringles cans were modified to make them look like cans of tennis balls: they were green and had a tennis ball in the middle, around which was the phrase “These are not tennis balls!” (Vassout, 2009).
