kulula.com ambushes the World Cup

Fifa is very protective of its image rights and trade marks around the World Cup, and with less than three months to go to kick off on June 11th they have objected to a South African budget airline’s advertising. The advert featured pictures of the stadiums, national flags, vuvuzelas (South African plastic trumpets) and the delightful tag line ‘Unofficial National Carrier for the You-Know-What’. Kulula is know for its quirky adverts and aircraft designs; the one shown above is, they say, part of their ongoing strategy to demystify air travel, and the one below helped them to raise over half a million rand for the charity CHOC (Children’s Haematology Oncology Clinic Childhood Cancer Foundation of South Africa).

Kulula’s spokeswoman said that many people across the country had criticised Fifa’s move, saying that football’s world governing organisation did not own South Africa’s soccer stadiums, soccer balls or vuvuzelas, but that they would respect the complaint and withdraw the advert. Fifa described the advert as ‘ambush marketing’ and that it was the combination of those elements which were banned. Look out for the growing number of adverts by the World Cup’s offical sponsors featuring the tournament and some of its biggest characters from now on - and the number of businesses seeking to take advantage of it with unofficial products and adverts.