Overcomes legal barriers. Sport sponsorship has also provided a vehicle to legitimate products such as alcohol and tobacco. While a number of countries ban or provide stringent regulations to govern the advertising of tobacco and alcohol products, sponsorship has provided a platform that has given these potentially harmful products an air of respectability. It also allows them access to television coverage and a youth market, nationally and internationally.

In the past, tobacco companies have been particularly adept at using Formula 1 motor racing for this purpose. In Canada, concerns over tobacco sponsorship of sporting and cultural events has arisen and the federal government has given sponsored organisations a five-year period to find replacement funds. Similar restrictions are increasingly being applied throughout Europe 1 What factors have contributed to the growth of sponsorship?

2 Why should sponsorship be considered a resource that can be exploited for competitive advantage?

3 What factors need to be present, according to Amis et al. (1997), in order for sponsorship to have the potential to lead to a position of competitive advantage?

4 In what ways can a firm engage in ‘ambush’ marketing? Is this unethical practice, or just effective marketing?