BNOC warns against ambush marketing
The Olympic Games attract a large following and some companies are trying to take advantage and gain mileage from the biggest sporting spectacle. But the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC) has warned companies against breaching the Olympic Games’ legal rights through the unauthorised use of Olympic images and logos.
During the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, a local company was forced to pull down a billboard that had an image of 800m sensation, Nijel Amos. The BNOC said in a statement this week that there are some entities and individuals in Botswana that are illegally advertising images of local athletes and the team that is currently participating in the Olympics.
“This contravenes Rule 40 of the Olympic Charter, which prevents athletes who are competing in the Games from allowing their names, images or sporting performance to be used in advertising during a ‘blackout period’, which is before, and during the Games, without the express permission of the International Olympics Committee (IOC),” the statement reads.
The following are Olympic Games properties and should not be used without permission, Tokyo 2020 and the Tokyo 2020 emblems and mascots, the Olympic symbol, the five rings.
Tokyo 2020 and the BNOC logo, the Olympic motto ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together’, the words ‘Olympic, Olympian and Olympiad’, and images and footage of the Games. BNOC acting business development and strategy manager, Edwin Kelapile said it has come to their attention that some companies are claiming to be supporting the team and athletes by sending good luck messages.
“They attach their own logos and that is deemed as illegal according to IOC guidelines. For you to associate with any athlete, you should have permission from IOC and that is through the NOC being BNOC. We always talk about partners when we do team preparations and those are companies that assisted us to prepare the team,” he said.
Kelapile said there are about three companies that have been posting the team on their social media pages attaching company logos. He said that is deemed as a promotion of their businesses leveraging on the Olympic brand. Kelapile said such companies could be sued and as BNOC they have decided to educate the private sector first.
He said in the past there was a company that was forced to pay athletes after using their images. “We have requested companies to pull down such posts from social media. Maybe they were not aware that they were doing something wrong. When we were seeking partnerships, we were informing companies about the benefits of partnering with us. You have that opportunity of partnering with athletes and you could congratulate the team upon arrival from the Olympics,” Kelapile said.
However, Kelapile noted that they did not approach all companies hence they do not expect all of them to be aware. “If you have not partnered with us, you have no right. You cannot expect to have the same benefits with our partners when you have failed to assist us. I cannot state how much the penalty is but it would depend on the weight of infringing Rule 40. It would be a decision of the legal team,” he said.