Brooks Running has "secretly launched an ambush marketing campaign" that "takes issue" with the IOC's Rule 40 regarding sponsor messaging around the Olympics, according to Sara Germano of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The IOC rule prevents Olympic participants from capitalizing on their own image for advertising purposes from nine days before the Opening Ceremony until three days after. Brooks Running's campaign, dubbed "Rule 40" in reference to the rule, "went live in early June and has mainly consisted of social-media posts and covertly distributed T-shirts and stickers. During the U.S. Track & Field Trials last month, a "flatbed billboard truck traveled around the University of Oregon campus, bearing slogans such as, 'Not pictured here: an athlete living below the poverty line to bring glory to their country.'" Brooks Dir of Sports Marketing Jesse Williams said that the company was "behind the ambush marketing" and added that "its purpose is 'to point out the silliness of the rule.'" He said that the decision to "launch it anonymously was to give all athletes, and not just Brooks-sponsored individuals, media and paraphernalia to discuss Rule 40 at their discretion." Germano noted Brooks Running will send "roughly a dozen athletes to Rio," including U.S. decathlete Jeremy Taiwo and U.S. marathoner Desiree Linden (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/30).
