A Clusterfuck of Ineptitude - Olympics Airbrushes Belfast

In a remarkable clusterfuck of ineptitude, in the run up to Remembrance Day, London 2012 airbrushed HMS Belfast from an official London 2012 Olympics poster showing London's skyline and the Thames.

Apparently it was a "mistake".

Really?

How do you accidentally airbrush out a picture of the largest vessel in the national historic fleet?

London 2012 organisers have had to apologise and reprint the posters with HMS Belfast in them this time.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Streakers Face £20K Fines

In case people haven't yet realised it yet, the Olympics are purely about money and corporate sponsorship deals (sport is but a mere backdrop to the money deals).

The proof of how money focused the Olympics are, can be seen in the stringent rules that will be enforced during next year's London 2012 games.

An amendment to the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 aims to target unofficial, or ambush, marketing and could cover anyone who tries to use their bodies to flash an advert for a company.

This means that if a streaker were to run across the track with a logo painted on his/her body, he/she could be fined £20K.

That sounds almost like a challenge to some brave souls!


Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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The Bottom Line

Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin, Brits h Olympic Volleyball players, have rented out their bottoms to Betfair (the bookmakers).

In exchange for an undisclosed sum, the pair will wear bikini briefs with a Quick Response (QR) code printed on the back. The code, when photographed on a smartphone, will take users to Betfair's website.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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The Building With No Name

There seems to be something of a problem brewing with the O2 Arena (no longer called the Millennium Dome because of it's association with white elephants).

AEG, the owner of the O2 arena, has had to remove the O2 branding from the building for the duration of the London 2012 Olympics as a result of a sponsorship clash with 2012 telecoms sponsor BT.

The building will be unbranded during the games, as AEG will not allow another brand to sponsor the venue.

Olympics organiser LOCOG is now in a flap, because the O2 Arena is to be used to host badminton and basketball events. Clearly it will look quite ridiculous to host the events at a building that has no name!

Needless to say this issue has been known about for several years. It is rather puzzling that it has only just come to a head.

As ever, the Olympics are not about sport but are about money and corporate image.

Feel free to make suggestions as to what to call the O2 Arena (Millennium Dome).

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Police Powers

It seems that ZaNuLabour have given the police some quite extraordinary powers in the run up to the 2012 London Olympics. The police will be entitled to enter private homes and seize political posters during the London 2012 Olympics.

Those who break the rules could be fined up to £20K.

The powers were introduced by the Olympics Act 2006, and passed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, in theory to preserve the monopoly of official advertisers on the London 2012 site.

The powers allow advertising posters or hoardings placed in shop or home to be removed. However, as with all ZaNuLabour legislation, it has been drafted so "broadly" that it also includes 'non-commercial material' - which could include legitimate campaign literature.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Advertising Agencies Pull Out

In another blow to the so called London Olympics 2012 "budget", a number of advertising agencies have pulled out.

For why?

It seems that the Olympics organisers are so desperate for cash to throw into the ever growing budgetary black hole (£12BN - including £2BN running costs - and rising), that they tried to charge the agencies £10M each for the "honour" of being a "tier three" sponsor.

Whilst the £10M was not an "up front fee" as such, any agency signing up would have been required to agree to spend millions in exchange for being named an official 2012 sponsor.

Unsurprisingly those in the advertising industry don't think that the benefits, especially during the recession, justify the outlay.

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Don't forget to visit www.theolympicswarehouse.com
www.olympicsdiary.com brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

The Perils of Advertising

The Guardian warns that the rules governing the use of words in advertising associated with the Olympics are draconian.

Quote:

"Under the 2006 London Olympic Games and Paralympics Games Act, normally innocuous words such as 'Game', 'Medals', 'Gold', '2012' and 'Summer' cannot be combined in any form of advertising around the Olympics, with anyone flouting the law facing a fine of up to £20,000."

How did it come to pass that words such as "game" and "summer" are forbidden?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Don't forget to visit www.theolympicswarehouse.com
www.olympicsdiary.com brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

The "Unseen" Adverts

Amnesty International has managed, rather cleverly, to highlight an issue that vexes them without even resorting to an official advertising campaign.

Amnesty's French offices commissioned TBWA to create a series of adverts highlighting China's alleged human rights abuses, in the run up to the Olympics.

The adverts included images of a man being pushed headfirst into a swimming pool, a policeman walking away from a man who has been shot while lashed to an archery target and a woman chained to a dumbbell in the colours of the Olympic rings.

The tag line is:

"After the Olympic Games, the fight for human rights must go on."

Amnesty in the end decided never to show them, because they were too graphic. However, they were entered for a website competition and inevitably ended up circulating on the web even crossing the Great Firewall of China.

The adverts, despite never being officially shown, have caused a huge amount of controversy in China and resulted in a large amount of publicity for Amnesty.

There is one more irony here.

TBWA, which produced the advertisements, also put together a series of adverts aimed at the Chinese Olympics market, including a series for Adidas featuring local athletes and their fans.

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www.olympicsdiary.com brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Ship Promotion Torpedoed

London 2012, one of the many bodies with their fingers in the Olympics' pie, has shelved plans to promote the 2012 London Olympics by using a ship sailing around the world advertising Britain's "cultural riches".

The plan had been for the ship, named the Olympic Friend-ship, to spend four years travelling around the world. The ocean-going clipper had been due to set sail this August. It was to have been crewed by young people, artists, philosophers and students.

The "grand plan" was that the ship would: "...carry a cargo emblematic of the UK's cultural riches.

In turn, every nation visited will have the opportunity to contribute to the vessel's cargo - either in real terms or via the website.

Through dialogue and exchange, creativity and sharing, the UK will use this voyage to redefine its relationship to world cultures and celebrate London's new role as host city."

Quite why this idea has been scrapped has not been officially stated. However, the fact that the plan sounds like a load of tosh is probably the key factor.

The Money Pit

The 2012 London Olympics is costing the taxpayers of Staffordshire, and others in the West Midlands, a "pretty penny".

Their money is being spent on officials to promote the 2012 London Olympics. Olympic "co-ordinators" are being hired by councils to "raise awareness" of the games.

Staffordshire County Council is advertising for a co-ordinator on a salary of up to £39,000 a year.

The post will involve telling people about the games as well as working on sport, business culture, education and tourism in the area.

Other authorities are doing the same, all paying similar salaries.

The Black Country Consortium has appointed marketing co-ordinator Claire Beresford. In Worcestershire, Peter Turvey has been appointed in a part-time post of about £15,000 funded by the Worcestershire Partnership.

A complete waste of money!