Golden Rules: The Rule 40 Deadline is Nearing the (Slalom) Gate … – Lexology (registration)

Summer may just be heating up, but advertisers should already be thinking about and planning for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games because the Rule 40 deadline is fast approaching. The opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympics isnt until February 9th of next year, but advertisers that are not official Team USA sponsors but want to include Team USA members in campaigns that run during the PyeongChang Olympics must act by August 1, 2017.

As we discussed in our previous blog post titled Golden Rules: Diving Into Rule 40, Rule 40 restricts participants in the Olympic Games from allowing their person, name, picture or sports performances to be used for advertising during the Olympic Games. This restriction, which is contained in a bye-law to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Charter, is administered by each countrys Olympic authority and was relaxed somewhat in 2015 to permit Olympic participants to be featured in so-called generic advertising during the Olympic Games.

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC), which oversees implementation of Rule 40 with respect to Team USA athletes, issued guidance in March 2017 about how advertisers should comply with Rule 40 during the PyeongChang Olympics. The USOCs March guidance is substantively identical to the guidance it issued in June 2015 for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Below are a few key points in the guidance for advertisers:

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Golden Rules: The Rule 40 Deadline is Nearing the (Slalom) Gate ... - Lexology (registration)