First it was clean stadiums, then advertising restrictions in the Octagon. Now the Rugby World Cup is trying to dictate the spelling of the English language.
A company running the World Cup's commercial programmes has reacted to a story last week in the Otago Daily Times that said the Octagon would be used as a fan zone for the event, suggesting its own spelling - "Fanzone" - should be used instead, for branding reasons.
That suggestion has been criticised by media commentator Jim Tully, who warned against those wanting to "commandeer straightforward terms and use them for commercial purposes".
Major sporting events, such as the Olympics and the Fifa World Cup in South Africa, have attracted controversy in the past for their attempts to protect sponsors.
New Zealand lost its sub-host role for the 2003 world cup in part because it could not provide stadiums that met the Rugby World Cup Ltd's strict definition of "clean" stadiums.
Otago stadium sponsor Forsyth Barr is expected to be barred from any advertising at the Dunedin facility - including naming rights - during the Rugby World Cup, because of those rules.
Dunedin City Council marketing communications agency manager Debra Simes noted last week there were "issues" with sponsorship for Dunedin's fan zone in the Octagon.
IMG (NZ) Ltd commercial operations manager Brendan Bourke emailed the newspaper on Thursday, noting his company managed "the commercial programme on behalf of RWCL, and Fanzones come under the one of the areas we manage.
"Just a point to note from our branding team who pull together all the kit of parts that define a Fanzone, such as flags, banners, tournament look and feel, etc, that the word Fanzone should be one word, and the F always capitalised."
Asked about Mr Bourke's response, Mr Tully said to talk about a fan zone was "a quite straightforward, reasonable thing to do".
"All I would say is you've got to be extremely careful that everyday language doesn't get commandeered.
"There's no way in the world you are obliged to follow the lead of a marketing company that wants you to use their brand name.
"I think you always want to be on the lookout for people who want to commandeer straightforward terms and use them for commercial purposes."
The Otago Daily Times will refer to the area as a fan zone.
