How not to say ‘Rugby World Cup’

THEY’RE forbidden words — unless you’re an official sponsor, of course.

While the Rugby World Cup is the event for companies to be associated with, those words — and a one page list of anything else that can’t be associated either — are off-limits for commercial use.

Rugby World Cup, World Cup 2011, RWC, World in Union, Rugby New Zealand 2011, Total Rugby, Webb Ellis Cup and IRB — they are all banned words for anyone bar official sponsors when it comes to brand association. However, there are plenty of companies down under and globally who’ve come up with clever ways to get around the words, associating themselves with the All Blacks and the biggest sporting event in New Zealand’s history — without directly doing so.