Consumer confusion and association in re-defining the scope of ambush marketing: The legal and marketing communications perspectives

The first reported incident of ambush marketing happened in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics when Fuji was the official sponsor for the Games. Kodak, who were not an official sponsor and had not paid any fees to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), still managed to benefit from the worldwide publicity of the event by sponsoring the UK track and field team. Since then, sporting organisations such as IOC and ICC (International Cricket Council) have started claiming that ambush marketing is detrimental to the sponsorship revenue of the events and accordingly to the financial viability of the Games (IOC 2011). The first piece of ambush marketing legislation was enacted in Australia in 1996 for the 2000 Olympic Games and subsequent host countries of mega events followed suit. In recent years there is a trend for tighter control of ambush marketing in various jurisdictions (Wei 2008).