Ambush Marketing Gets Political
Posted: 2/12/2010 2:30:17 PM by
Jim Andrews | with 0 comments
The USOC has enlisted U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch in its campaign against ambush marketing. The Utah Republican has issued a statement in support of the organization’s efforts to clamp down on ambushing.
I’m surprised that a conservative politician like Hatch would take such a position. It reeks of big government interfering in private enterprise and sounds an awful lot like the type of anti-business sentiments that Hatch and his GOP colleagues typically rail against.
There is nothing wrong with Hatch coming out against any company that would illegally use Olympic marks or otherwise fraudulently claim an Olympic association. The problem for him is that the USOC is using his statement—along with empty threats of legal action from its general counsel—against marketers like Subway, when its clear to even non-lawyers that the chain’s ads with Michael Phelps swimming to Vancouver do not cross a legal (or in my opinion, ethical) line.
You would think a savvy politician like Hatch would be smart enough not to be dragged into a situation where he can be used to attack U.S. businesses engaged in legitimate purposes, but perhaps I am giving him too much credit. (Could be because we share a hometown and high school in Mt. Lebanon, Pa.)
I won’t hold my breath waiting for Fox News to invite me on to explain how Orrin Hatch is being used to spit in the eye of the free-enterprise system, but it would be fun!
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Filed under: ambush marketing