South African budget airline Kulula had to withdraw its advertisements for the 2010 World Cup after being contacted by FIFA lawyers. The airline had started a huge campaign with the motto “Unofficial National Carrier of the You-Know-What”, something that according to FIFA is against copyright and trademark regulations. The airline is now banned from using words like “South Africa” or even graphics like the country’s national flag, soccer balls, Cape Town Stadium or vuvuzelas (traditional South African horn) in their adverts. The company’s spokesman also made a post on Twitter regarding this matter and discussing FIFA’s outrageous according to them demands.
So the marketing guys of Kulula came back with an even funnier advertisement and response, posting a full page ad in yesterday’s Times. The banner says “Not next year, not last year, but somewhere in between” on top, uses images of golf tees that look a lot like vuvuzelas, and a picture of something that looks like a stadium but it’s not. Right or wrong Kulula is getting tons of publicity for all this mess, below we have an image of the original ad so you can decide for yourself.
