The FIFA World Cup 2018 - Ambush Marketing and the Law
19 July 2017
Saturday marked 1 year to go until the 2018 FIFA World Cup final. The countdown clocks are ticking and the advertising industry is turning its thoughts towards the marketing opportunities which this mammoth sporting event present...
Despite the downturn in corporate support for FIFA following the corruption which has been exposed in recent years, official sponsor campaigns will inevitably be dominant this time next year. Ambush marketers are unlikely to be put off either, and there are no doubt marketing execs already dreaming up elaborate ideas to circumvent the rules and piggyback on the excitement generated by football's biggest tournament.
FIFA will once again be looking to its legal armoury - deploying trade marks, copyright and unfair competition laws around the world with the aim of preventing campaigns which undermine the exclusivity granted to their sponsors. In Russia they also have an apparently powerful weapon to fight against ambush in the host country - the 2018 World Cup Law.
In this article we take a closer look at the history of ambush marketing around the World Cup, the laws available to FIFA, and we provide some top tips to those creating official or unofficial World Cup ads.