Lawyers for former Olympic athlete, Mary Peters, have told the High Court that the Ark Life Assurance Company took advantage of her reputation in a 1996 advertising campaign. They allege that the campaign greatly reduced the impact she would have in endorsing other products. The Olympic Gold medallist is seeking damages from Ark Life for using her picture and name without her consent. Ark Life denies the allegations.
In 1996, Mary Peters was at a charity event in Gorey, County Wexford. Some friends said that they were glad her sporting endeavours were claiming dividends. She was a bit shocked by this until she was shown a brochure by Ark Life Assurance which showed her photo and a headline reading 'Remember When Mary Peters won gold?'. It was one of a series of advertisements entitled 'Remember When' and included man setting foot on the moon, Richard Nixon and Watergate. Ark Life claims it was highlighting historical events, not personalities. The leaflets and posters were distributed to AIB branches. Up until that point, the Olympic athlete had channelled her energies to non commercial activities but she had decided that in 1997, the 25th anniversary of her success at the Munich Olympics, she would begin using her reputation for commercial purposes.
Her lawyers argued that the Ark Life campaign greatly reduced the impact she would have on endorsing other products and excluded her from getting involved with other financial institutions. They allege that the campaign was used to take advantage of her personality, good will and reputation and that many people would form the view that Mary Peters was endorsing the Ark Life product.
Ark Life is denying that it used Mary Peters reputation and has denied that she has a reputation in this jurisdiction. Her barrister, Richard Nesbitt, described this claim as outrageous. He said, “this is Mary Peters, a successful athlete against one of the largest corporations in the country and it was not necessary to be insulting, to be rude,” A number of international sports people are expected to give evidence of her international reputation as the case progresses.
