USOC seeks to stop Nabisco from using 'Olympic terminoloy;' Qantas Airlines agrees to stop saying 'Olympic rates'
San Francisco, September 9, 2000 -- The United States Olympic Committee filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, which seeks a temporary restraining order to restrict Nabisco from continuing the alleged usage of Olympic terminology in an ad campaign. At issue are print ads used to sell Nabisco's 'Fig Newton' product. The ads contain the wording, "The ancient Olympians worshipped the fig and used it for energy during training", and is accompanied by an image of an athlete throwing a discus. Nabisco is not an official Olympic partner and the complaint avers that the ads "inaccurately suggest an affiliation" with the Games and the Olympic movement, according to Sports Business Daily.
Certainly, the USCO is expected to protect the Olympic marks for which marketers continue to pay enormous sums of money, in hopes of attaching themselves to the Olympic ideal. The USOC has suggested that, in the ads, Nabisco attempts to portrait its Fig Newton product as an energy food, and is directly competing with current official Olympic partners. Nestle SA-owned 'Powerbar' is the official nutritional energy bar supplier to the USOC. Nabisco's ad has run in various sports and fitness-related magazines and also appeared at the Boston Marathon. Prior to filing the suit, which seeks unspecified damages, the USCO had repeatedly requested Nabisco to drop the campaign, after it first appeared in April.
In another advertising controversy, Sydney Games sponsor, Ansett Airlines sought to ernjoin competitor Quantas Airlines from engaging in Olympic-related advertising. Quantas had run ads which included Australian Olympians and offered special domestic "Olympic" rates. Although, it seemed that Asnett had previously "ignored" the efforts of Quantas to tie itself to the Games, Asnett sought an injunction to ban Quantas from running newspaper ads, claiming the ads had "the potential to irrevocably erode.Ansett's significant investment as an Olympic sponsor," according to Financial Times. The two airlines had reached an undisclosed settlement, with Asnett claiming that it was satisfied that Quantas' advertising efforts would not infringe upon the rights of Asnett as an official Olympic sponsor.
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