ABSTRACT Ambush: Word itself describes warfare technique of concealing yourself and lying in wait to attack by surprise.

In the present era of commercialization, competition and advertisement this warfare is used to extract benefit on the cost of competitors. Here, company capitalize to advertize themselves on the events, in which its not an official sponsor. it is an unconventional way of gaining from anothers ad spend without paying a fee for it. Although it mars the campaign of the first brand, it ends up giving a lot of publicity to both the brands. The ethical concerns over ambush marketing are a controversy in itself. It is just an aggressive behavior observed in the commercial arena but it definitely does not revolve around fair practices but then it also opens new and thrilling arena of marketing. EXAMPLES OF AMBUSH MARKETING : Pepsi Ambushed marketing against Adidas in World cup1996: Pepsi ran a campaign titled nothing official about it targeting the official sponsor Coca Cola. Their advertisements included branded hot air balloons floating over the cricket stadiums.

Ambush marketing by Hindustan Unilever against Procter & Gamble during launch of new Pantene:

P&G was all set to launch the new Pantene on August1, 2010 and all Mumbai hoardings were screaming `Mystery Shampoo!! 80% women say is better than anything else'. HUL grabbed opportunity and suddenly on 28 July before P&G could launch the product.Mumbai woke up to another hoarding that was saying There is no mystery. Dove is the No.1 shampoo. Thus eating up all P&G`s advertisement campaign for `new Pantene`. Nike ambushing Adidas,the official sponsor of Soccer World cup: Nike created an ad dubbed "Write the Future," including well-known soccer players as Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo along with other stars like cartoon character Homer Simpson and basketball's Kobe Bryant that has led to its stronger association with the tournament. Thus ate the official sponsor, Adidas`s share of advertisement.

Sony trying to abush in world cup: A high-visibility print campaign and hoardings by Sony featuring India cricket captain MS Dhoni landed just days before the start of the world cup. The campaign shows Dhoni playing cricket in blue clothes, thus ICC, laid down strict guidelines to protect its sponsors against ambush.

Bavaria Beer Vs Budweiser During match between Holland and Denmark in World Cup(South Africa) 36 female Dutch fans arrived wearing orange mini-dresses, which soon caught worlds media attention. These ladies were evicted from the stadium and arrested, as it was claimed dresses were provided by Bavaria Beer, a Dutch brewery.FIFA officials intervened to stop the media coverage to protect their official sponsor Budweiser from being ambushed.

Kingfisher, Jet and Go ambush marketing: The saga started off when Jet airline came out with their new ad Weve Changed.

Kingfisher Airlines saw an opportunity and took credit for making them change and the scenario changed to:

As if it wasnt enough GO Airline kicked in to cash the publicity with We havent Changed we still are smartest way to fly, and thus scene transformed to:

Ambush Marketing is it ethical: The ethical concerns over ambush marketing are a controversy. It indirectly transgresses intellectual property rights. Even when ambush marketers are not making any direct references to the protected IPR; its unethical to capitalize on such hard earned goodwill from an event. Direct and indirect references to the event are illegal transgression on the rights of event organizers. Moreover, sponsors cannot get the return they anticipated. But in modern world of Marketing, competition and ambushers it is meaningless to leave it subjected to personal discretion.Now,competitive world believes in the adage Everything is fair in love and war. So some necessary steps must be taken to curb it. Some of them can be: Preventing tickets from being used as competition prizes Policing the event more strictly for ambushers and denying them access Using event regulations and participation agreements to restrict the rights that participants can grant their own sponsors." Companies should focus on consumers rather than the competition. Eventually, consumers will decide based on the brand's performance and image.