“Let’s do a campaign around the Olympics,” is going to be a phrase used by many marketers in the run up to London 2012. But the IOC’s aggressive protection of its sponsors is going to mean that any Olympic campaign needs to be planned with care. There’s a great Olympics ambush marketing lockdown article on the Marketing Law website (registration required). Perhaps the most important fact from this article that anyone who thinks they can ignore the legislation and hope for the best should know is:
…Regulations effectively reverse the normal “innocent until proven guilty” presumption for directors and other senior officers of businesses whose brands appear in unlawful ambush marketing activity
… you have been warned!
