• Wall Street Journal, Thursday, April 15, 2010 10:46 AM

Ambush marketing seems to be a recurring problem at major sports event nowadays but Peter Wonacott reports that the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is cracking down hard on brands that are trying to share the limelight cast on official sponsors, such as Adidas and Coca-Cola, of the upcoming World Cup games in South Africa this June.

FIFA lawyers stopped low-cost airline Kulula.com from running ads that called the "Unofficial National Carrier of the 'You-KnowWhat'" and displayed a soccer player, soccer balls and the South African flag, for example. In a revised ad, the soccer balls are replaced with a disco ball, a whistle subs for the flag and the player is barefoot. But that's just one of 400 trademark infringement cases FIFA says it's investigating.

South African officials are facing the ire of small business owners who feel disenfranchised by attempts to control unauthorized sales and advertising around stadiums in so-called Exclusion Zones that range from half a kilometer to three kilometers. "We aren't going to reap the benefits of all the people coming," one produce trader said to other small businesspeople at a recent "crisis" meeting. But he added that they could "make the World Cup impossible for them."

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