FIFA Demands Airline Drop Ad That Didn't Mention FIFA At All

from the unofficial-sponsor-of-you-know-what dept

Mon, Mar 22nd 2010 1:10pm — Mike Masnick

Earlier this year, we wrote about how the Olympics, notorious for trying to control everything associated with the Olympics to block anyone from doing any marketing around the games if they haven't paid up, got upset at company selling a t-shirt that read:

"Cool Sporting Event That Takes Place in British Columbia Between 2009 and 2011 Edition."

Now it looks like something similar has happened with the World Cup and the South African airline, Kulula. Kulula, if you don't know, is somewhat famous for its sense of humor. In particular, I really like the way the company recently redesigned one of its airplanes as "Flying 101":

Along those lines, the airlines decided to make a joke of the limits that FIFA struck on sponsors of the World Cup and put out an advertisement calling itself the:

"Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What."

And, along with that it included images of stadiums, national flages and vuvuzelas (a type of horn regularly blown at football matches in South Africa). FIFA apparently sent a threat letter demanding Kulula pull the ad, calling it "ambush marketing." Apparently, FIFA has no sense of humor. After people got annoyed, FIFA put out a silly statement saying that it never said the airline couldn't use certain words or symbols -- but it just couldn't use them all in combination.

Of course, you have to imagine that all the additional attention to Kulula thanks to this "controversy" doesn't bother the airline one bit...

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: ads, trademark, world cup
Companies: fifa, kulula

24 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Ima Fish (profile), 22 Mar 2010 @ 1:13pm

I don't know what's funnier, the plane or the advertising copy. I love this company.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Freedom, 22 Mar 2010 @ 1:18pm

V8/Duh Moment...
Man, I struggled for months trying to figure out what I was going to paint my plane and finally decided on a nice but boring paint scheme. This one would have been perfect and 100% unique in the GA world. Darn it!!!

Freedom
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Headbhang, 22 Mar 2010 @ 2:06pm

Well done Kulula
Well done for sticking it up to the greedy bastards. :D
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rabbit80, 22 Mar 2010 @ 2:18pm

Love the plane, but WTF is "ambush marketing"? Is there a law against it?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
crade (profile), 22 Mar 2010 @ 2:39pm

Re:
Ambush marketting is running ads referencing an event when you aren't the sponsor. Some places have laws against it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Mighty Buzzard, 22 Mar 2010 @ 2:46pm

Best bit of Streisand Effect judo I've seen in a while.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2010 @ 2:53pm

Kulula needs to contact the Louisiana Attorney Generals office for information on how to smack-down a sports league. The NFL backed down real fast when the AT and one of the states senators got after them about so called Saints' trademarks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Evil IP Attorney, 22 Mar 2010 @ 2:57pm

Here's what we do-
First, we fully commercialize culture by removing the Public Domain.

Next, we need to make sure people are paid for every use of ideas in a cultural setting. You wanna talk about Bob's Movie? You better pay Bob for talking about his movie first. But you can only do so through me. Later, when mind reading and brain control finally becomes legalized, you will have to pay me for thinking about my imaginary property.

I charge $1K an hour for you to think about my imaginary property.

Can you say win-win?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mjb5406 (profile), 22 Mar 2010 @ 3:35pm

No Attribution?
Oh, Mike, Mike, Mike...

I've read Techdirt enough to know you bristle at articles posted that do not contain attribution, and (at least most of the time) you mention who reported the story... why not this time? I sent in on Sunday, and was thrilled to see that you picked it up... but no mention of who you got the story from. Sigh. Guess I can't get my 15 seconds of fame after all!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mjb5406 (profile), 22 Mar 2010 @ 3:41pm

So, OK...
You got it from the BBC... but I DID send it in, and MY source was from a South African news source, not one of the Colonialists!@ :-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Masnick (profile), 22 Mar 2010 @ 3:55pm

Re: No Attribution?
I've read Techdirt enough to know you bristle at articles posted that do not contain attribution, and (at least most of the time) you mention who reported the story... why not this time? I sent in on Sunday, and was thrilled to see that you picked it up... but no mention of who you got the story from. Sigh. Guess I can't get my 15 seconds of fame after all!

I wrote this post up on Friday after seeing it then, but didn't post it until today. Your submission came in after the post was already written...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NAMELESS.ONE, 22 Mar 2010 @ 4:40pm

So mister terrorist now has targets?
HAHA
bad thoughts to day after the evil anonymous crap
LOL
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 22 Mar 2010 @ 5:54pm

And the next addition to the planes paint job.
F.I.F.A - fricken ignorant flaming a##holes..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
mjb5406 (profile), 22 Mar 2010 @ 5:54pm

Re: Re: No Attribution?
That's OK, Mike... my wife is from South Africa, so I felt it my duty to report on this ridiculous move by FIFA.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Daemon_ZOGG (profile), 22 Mar 2010 @ 8:39pm

Kulula Airlines...
The plane's paint-job is AWESOME! I wanna paint my car in the same fashion! "Driver, Front Passenger, Engine,
Fuel Tank, Right Front Tire, Etc". Heh-heh-haaah. ;))

Cheers
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Liquid (profile), 23 Mar 2010 @ 4:32am

Re: Kulula Airlines...
LMAO I was about to say the same thing. Also we should have Drivers ED cars painted in the same fashion as well.

Genius.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rabbit80, 23 Mar 2010 @ 8:46am

Kululu's response (Printed advert)
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/kulula-vs-fifa-round-two-not-next-year-not-last-year-but- somewhere-in-between.html
[ link to this | view in thread ]
holger, 24 Mar 2010 @ 9:32pm

another example from Germany
Couple of years ago German Telekom tried t own the letter "T" and forbade anyone else to use it. One of my clients actually had to change their company logo although they used the T before German Telekom. I wonder what Kermit would say.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael Lockyear, 25 Mar 2010 @ 8:22am

I enjoyed their twitter response, "oh dear letter from FIFA's lawyers says we broke their trademark of the use of "South Africa" and think our non-WC ad was about soccer..." http://twitter.com/kulula/status/10357793290
[ link to this | view in thread ]
yuregininsesi, 24 Jun 2010 @ 4:12pm

Kulula needs to contact the Louisiana Attorney Generals office for information on how to smack-down a sports league. The NFL backed down real fast when the AT and one of the states senators got after them about so called Saints' trademarks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Barry M, 2 Jul 2010 @ 3:56am

Fifa
Here in South Africa, as the quarter finals of the 2010 WC kick off, we South Africans are completely and utterly gatvol (cheesed off) with Fifa. Their arrogance knows no bounds. They see shadows everywhere and it is always called ambush marketing. They are past masters at drawing attention to these so called ambush brands thereby giving those competitor brands unprecedented mileage. And then there is Septic Bladders refusal to introduce video technology. The standard of refereeing has been nothing short of putrid. Never before have I seen anything quite so dismal. I for one can’t wait till Fifa pack their collective bags and leave these shores!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
pariuri online, 8 Nov 2010 @ 4:40am

Greetings I recently finished reading through your blog and I'm very impressed. I do have a couple questions for you personally however. Do you think you're thinking about doing a follow-up posting about this? Will you be going to keep bringing up-to-date as well?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
gps expert reviews, 20 Dec 2010 @ 3:21am

Comment
You have a point anyway. Sad to know that FIFA put out a silly statement saying that it never said the airline couldn't use certain words or symbol. gps expert reviews
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Steve, 22 Jan 2016 @ 4:37am

FIFA
Probably didn't offer an official from FIFA a big enough bribe, that's all....
[ link to this | view in thread ]