No ambush marketing, warns Comrades Marathon organisers

On the day, the route will be monitored by the SAPS and a team of specially trained 'route monitors' to identify unauthorised marketing activities. This is in response to the increasing trend towards the use of ambush marketing tactics during the race.

Included as ambush marketing tactics are the unauthorised use of registered trademarks such as the terms "Comrades Marathon", "AmaBeadibBeadi", "The Ultimate Human Race" and the "Figure of Hermes", the official logo. These trademarks have been registered with the Registrar of Trademarks in Pretoria and have also been registered in terms of the Heraldry Act No. 18/1962.

The CMA will confiscate illegal products and the guilty parties will be removed from the route. The CMA also reserves the right to prosecute those businesses and individuals that have no link with the event, but illegally exploit the event as a marketing platform for their products and services.

The Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) provides a very comprehensive definition of ambush marketing.

"It is the attempt by an organisation, product or brand to create the impression of being an official sponsor of an event or activity by affiliating itself with that event or activity without having paid the sponsorship rights fee or being party to the sponsorship contract."

"Sponsors and suppliers invest considerable sums of money, manpower and products into the race and we will not allow non-sponsoring companies to use the race as a platform to market their products or services. If you are not a sponsor of the event it is illegal to try to create the impression that you are or that you are somehow associated with the race. We will be obliged to use the full force of the law to act against transgressors," warns Gary Boshoff, GM of the CMA.

"The CMA welcomes the use of its registered marks by the media, both print and electronic, when reporting on the race. However, businesses and individuals seeking to use these registered marks for advertising and marketing purposes need to obtain permission from the CMA."