USOC asks Bush-Cheney campaign to pull ad

The US Olympic Committee is getting into the Bush-Kerry race for the White House in an unanticpated way.

The USOC is requesting that President Bush's campaign pull an ad that mentions the Olympics, even though the recognizable trademark of the Games, the five rings, does not appear in the ad.

The ad has angered Olympic officials because they feel it hijacks the Olympic brand -- a registered trademark -- even though it does not display the Games logo.

The U.S. Olympic Committee had asked the Bush election "campaign to withdraw the advertisement they are running," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies told reporters.

The television advertisement, ahead of the presidential elections in November, does not feature the five Olympic rings -- one of the world's most recognizable images -- but an announcer tells viewers that at "this Olympics there will be two more free nations," referring to the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq under Bush's presidency.

The IOC reinstated Afghanistan after the fall of the tyranical Taliban regime, and Iraq was reinstated this year after oppressive ruler Saddam Hussain was removed from office.

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