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Interview

Advertising Ambushes: How Companies Bypass Official Sponsors at Major Events

07/05/2026
Published in El País

The newspaper El País published a report on the phenomenon of ambush marketing, a practice through which brands seek to benefit from the visibility of major sporting and cultural events without being official sponsors. The article analyzes the legal boundaries of these strategies and includes insights from Cristina Duch, partner in Intellectual Property, Industrial and Technology at Pérez-Llorca Spain, and Pablo Hooper, partner in Intellectual Property and Sports at Pérez-Llorca México.

The report examines how large-scale events, such as the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games and massive concerts, become fertile ground for ambush marketing campaigns, where brands attempt to indirectly associate themselves with an event without holding official sponsorship rights. Through emblematic examples, the article explains the legal risks of creating an improper association with organizers or official sponsors.

In this context, Cristina Duch notes that infringement may arise both from the likelihood of confusion and from the unfair exploitation of another party’s reputation, while Pablo Hooper explains that Mexico has strengthened its legislation to administratively sanction these practices when they mislead the public into falsely believing that an official sponsorship relationship exists.

Consult the full content of the Article here.