Who's The Loser?

The Olympic Games may be starting in Barcelona, but the affiliated Corporate Sponsor Marketing Games have been going hot and heavy for some time. The main event is a piratical competition known as ambush marketing. The venues are magazines and television. The major matches so far are Visa International vs. American Express and Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi-Cola.

Visa has forked over $20 million to Olympic organizers to make its charge plate the Games' official credit card, while Coca-Cola has plunked down $33 million to become the official soft drink. Challengers, who pay no entry fee to play, attempt to disrupt the exclusive promotional campaigns with disguised Olympic tie-in ads of their own. American Express denies that it is playing ambush. Instead its clever effort, unveiled last week, is billed as "corrective advertising," aimed at misperceptions fostered by Visa advertising that the American Express card is not accepted in Barcelona. "The Olympics don't take American Express," warns Visa. Counters the American Express ad: "And remember, to visit Spain, you don't need a visa." Pepsi is taking a sentimental approach. Its commercial features Magic Johnson, a mainstay of the U.S. basketball team.

Non-Olympians count themselves winners when surveys show that consumers cannot tell which company has the official imprimatur. The real Games, however, could end up the loser if the corporate games get so rough that companies decide to quit paying for exclusive sponsorships. The money collected from selling rights goes for training players and staging trial competitions.