Ambushing occurs when a company that has no formal rights as an official sponsor, associates its own brand with a sport event with the intention of communicating the false impression that it is a sponsor. The article identifies and discusses seven potential ambush opportunities. The extent to which ambushing is effective is reviewed. Official sponsors receive little legal protection from ambushing, so they have to develop market strategies to counter it and three are presented here. The paper concludes with a discussion of the ethics of ambushing. 2004 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
