Design
The Pettiness of Olympic Branding
The micromanaged brand protection strategies of the International Olympic Committee are going down about as well as you’d expect with the home crowd in London.
The first rule of the Olympics is: You do not talk about the Olympics. Not, that is, if you aren’t an official sponsor. As London’s games draw near, British businesses have been learning just how little leeway they have to use this summer’s events to promote their products, or even to mention them at all.
Among the many people to fall foul of the games’ sponsorship police currently monitoring Britain’s businesses are a butcher warned off using this Olympic ring symbol to advertise his sausages, volunteers planning to give out home-made but criminally off-brand cushions to athletes, a florists’ shop decorated with Olympic wreaths, and a café owner selling a baguette with an uncanny resemblance to the Olympic torch.