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Olympic pride, it seems, is private property.

Last Thursday evening, when Roots Canada invited a few dozen reporters and VIPs to its flagship Toronto store for sushi, oysters, and a fashion show celebrating the launch of a new line of outerwear, the president of MasterCard Canada invoked the 2010 Winter Games as a reason to buy the clothes. “As Canada prepares to welcome the world, I don't think there's another way to say ‘welcome' than wearing some of the Canada Collection,” Kevin Stanton said.

There's only one problem: neither Roots nor MasterCard, its partner in a venture to raise funds for a charity sports organization, are official Olympic sponsors.

Instead, they are part of a growing army of “ambush marketers,” using the nation's unprecedented interest in the Winter Games to sell products and services without paying the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the privilege.

Stepping onto the turf of the official Olympics sponsor Panasonic Corp., Sony has wrapped transit vehicles in Vancouver and Toronto with ads for its Bravia television that play up Sony's financial support of speed skater Cindy Klassen. Yesterday, while two Coca-Cola promotional vehicles rolled through Churchill, Man., blaring the soft drink's newest jingle to all who came out for the Olympic torch relay, its rival was also at work.

Pepsi, which is a sponsor of Hockey Canada, unveiled an official cheer at a game in Summerside, P.E.I., that it hopes crowds will adopt as the country's amateur hockey teams move into the thick of the season.

Sports marketing consultants predict a flood over the next few months of Olympic-style campaigns that are simply missing the official Olympics insignias. “There's going to be a gazillion turf wars and a lot of blurring of lines,” said Keith McIntyre, the president of K. Mac & Associates, a marketing resource agency. Those marketing battles, in turn, will present some tough decisions for VANOC, which doesn't want to appear too heavy-handed in cracking down on ambush marketers but must also protect the rights of Olympic sponsors.

Sony, not an official Olympic sponsor, has wrapped transit vehicles in Vancouver and Toronto with television ads that play up the company’s financial support of speed skater Cindy Klassen.

Many of them have paid extraordinary sums to affiliate themselves with the Games: BCE Inc.'s Bell Canada shelled out $200-million, for example, while Hudson's Bay Co. bid more than $100-million to become the apparel sponsor. Those two sponsorships were among the reasons VANOC hit a domestic sponsorship bonanza, raising $760-million, about three times its initial estimate.

Roots insists its Canada Collection has nothing to do with the Olympics – even though the Right to Play charity was founded by Johan Koss, who won five speed-skating medals at the 1992 and 1994 Games, and the fact Right to Play had a long time role at the Olympics until the International Olympic Committee this year banned it from Vancouver venues over a sponship dispute.

Lindsay Meredith, a marketing professor at Simon Fraser University, says the Roots campaign, which prominently features the word Canada, is savvy because it will spark close and clear connections in the minds of Canadians who remember the company's previous Olympic work. “An awful lot of people will connect Roots and the Olympics,” he said. “VANOC can gnash their teeth but as much as VANOC might think, they don't own the word Canada.”

Roots co-founder Michael Budman says if VANOC complains, “I'd say, ‘You're an extremely paranoid organization. If you want to challenge our trademark, go right ahead. The name of our company is Roots Canada.'”

Ambush marketers are an occasional irritant but getting distracted by them is a mistake, said Howard Thomas, vice-president of marketing for the Canadian arm of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., an international Olympic Games sponsor since 1998. The world's No. 2 mobile phone maker credits its prominent presence in Beijing for large and fast gains made in the global market.

“Sometimes you question the real value and it's always a cause for concern. But we're a global brand and the Olympics is a great platform to build that brand,” he said. “The positives far outweigh the negatives but, yeah, there's always a guy trying to come in the back door.”

Coca-Cola, which claims a connection to the modern Olympic Games dating back to 1928, is not as forgiving about the incursions. “When you get other companies that are trying to leverage the Olympics without paying to support them … it could backfire on them,” said Dave Moran, Coca-Cola Canada's director of public affairs and communications.

Up to this point, VANOC has been mostly mum on ambush marketing, quietly sending warning letters to companies it feels go too far. In 2005, it put out a press release asking Imperial Oil's Esso chain to stop a “Cheer on Canada” contest that had a prize of hockey tickets in Turin.

Now, organizers are increasing the moral suasion. VANOC is preparing to send letters to many Canadian businesses asking them to police each other. “As a leader in your industry, you can provide support – whether verbal, written or otherwise – in creating a collective voice against unfair marketing tactics,” reads the letter.

But Sony points out that Olympians need support if they ever hope to get to the Games in the first place. “Amateur athletes like Cindy depend on sponsorships to help fund her training and reach her goals,” a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

VANOC acknowledges that there is a “fine line” between backing the games and sponsoring individual athletes, and asks businesses to be mindful of the risk of consumer confusion during the Olympics and Paralympics window. The VANOC website has an 18-point scale to measure infringements. For a small business, it indicates having a “Winter 2010” sale is okay but an “Olympic sale” is not.

Mr. Budman of Roots said he and his partner Don Green will be based out of the new Shangri-La Hotel for the Games, but he would not offer details on the parties and other events they'll host while in town. “We're going to do whatever we want. It's still a free country, isn't it?”