Megalomania

In a splendidly absurd example of megalomania, the Olympic organisers have issued a decree that prohibits groups of people attending the forthcoming Olympic Games in Athens if they wear T shirts and other clothing bearing the logos of companies or organisations that are not sponsoring the event.



The theory is that they want to keep the Games clear of advertising.



Umm...a few points here guys (addressed to the Olympic organisers), just to clarify my understanding of the rules:



1 What constitutes a group? 20 people sitting together, or 20 people sitting apart?



2 Why can people wearing the logos of the sponsors attend the Games en masse? This constitutes advertising does it not?



3 What gives you the right to dictate to people what they will wear?



4 Define non sponsor; eg does the wearing of a T shirt with an NGO logo constitute a breach of the rules?



5 There are 3 million unsold tickets for the Games, does this restriction help the sales of tickets?



The Games organisers claim to be protecting the Games from commercialisation. I suspect that the reality is that one or more of the official sponsors, fearful of a poor turnout for these Games, have "strongarmed" the organisers and forced them into issuing this absurd ruling.



My advice to people attending the Games is to go along wearing identical T shirts, hats, bags anything you can find that does not have an official sponsor logo; to show how absurd the ruling is.