According to this article, FIFA has ordered budget airline Kulula.com to pull its advert that says the airline is the "Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What".
Apparently, the following terms are also protected by law and may result in legal action from FIFA if your business uses them for promotional purposes:
2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
2010 FIFA World Cup
FIFA World Cup
World Cup
2010 World Cup
World Cup 2010
South Africa 2010 or SA 2010 or ZA 2010
2010 South Africa
Football World Cup
Soccer World Cup
I'm sorry, but I think it's crazy that "2010 South Africa" is not allowed! What if you sell SA wildlife calendars? In fact, FIFA has been given exclusive rights to the word "2010" in South Africa. Bizarre. I've never heard of anyone being awarded rights to a year before.
FIFA seems to have taken ownership of the use of our national flag, depictions of vuvuzelas and any mention of soccer too. Sorry to everyone who's paid to be a sponsor of the Premier Soccer League - you probably won't be allowed to advertise your involvement with the sport that must not be named.
Strange, when to date the general understanding has been that ads referencing general football terms and imagery are ok as long as they don't make use of the FIFA and World Cup trademarks and symbols.
I understand that FIFA is protecting the rights of its commercial partners and all the rest, but am I the only one that thinks this is a bit OTT?
12 comments:
I have a friend who works for a large SA company (I won't mention the name here). Their head office happens to be within 5km or something of the stadium in Jo'burg and, because they are not an official sponsor, they have to remove all 'advertising' from the outside of their building. That's f-ing ridiculous! FIFA will cover the costs of that exercise but still...it's not like they CHOSE to put their head office there.
The whole thing has already got on my nerves and we still have a few months to go...
Hear Hear!
Similar post today Tam, although mine was less detailed :)
Maybe not being aallowed to say 2010 means that we could ignore it I'm so tired of it. Can't wait for it to begin that way it can end.
GO (insert my country of birth here) (insert the year concerned here)!
Ridiculous! I mean really there was life before "you know what" and there will be life after so they need to get a bloody grip!
Ridiculous! I mean really there was life before "you know what" and there will be life after so they need to get a bloody grip!
It's hard to believe that they actually have first dibs on a year. But then, a couple of years back Vodacom and MTN apparently went to court to debate who owned Summer. It's a very strange world out there when it comes to branding.
Year of the CUP. What next!
FIFA is annoying me....so much
Have a great long weekend
I think they lost the plot. Apparently people aren't allowed to refer to vuvuzelas either? Oops, I just said vuvuzela.
VUVUZELA!!!!!!
Thats strange. FIFA came to present to us, explaining the rules. And they said we can use
'2010', just Not in conjunction with 'soccer', 'Football' or 'SA'.
Also they explained the rules around existing businesses that are close to stadiums. And the rules are that if it is existing they carry on with normal business, if they do anything extra (including keeping signage up), they will be fined.
Not sure what has changed?
ridiculous! I'm loving the kulula ads though!
Personally, I think the powers that be were so desperate to host it in a 3rd world country that they sold out and gave in on everything!
Very few real SAFFAS are really going to benefit because of all the restrictions!
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