The Corporate Olympics

July 21, 2012 3:47 PM

On Friday, Baron Sebastian Coe, the conservative politician, former athlete, and Nike board member who is chair of LOCOG (the London Organizing Committee) for the 2012 games, ignited a furor when he said anyone wearing a Pepsi T-shirt is likely to be "booted out" because it would upset Coca-Cola, who is an official sponsor.

LOCOG later overruled Coe, though the official list of prohibited items includes "Any objects or clothing bearing political statements or overt commercial identification intended for ‘ambush marketing’".

Coe has continued to defend "protecting" the sponsors, but mockery of ham-handed enforcement is has been wide-spread, as when police officers were told not to be seen with french fries other than those by McDonalds, chocolate other than Cadbury, or other non-sponsor snacks. (They could purchase other brands, but they had to be emptied into clear plastic containers.)

The backlash against the corporations has forced some changes, however. Originally, the sponsors were granted significant tax breaks on profits made during the games, but public pressure has forced GE, McDonalds, and Coke to decline the temporary tax haven.

posted by CheeseDigestsAll (79 comments total)

You know what's worse than ambush marketing?

This backlash.
posted by effugas at 3:50 PM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

I was at the Olympic site yesterday and quite frankly the place looks like a prison.
posted by nickrussell at 3:54 PM on July 21, 2012 [10 favorites]

[shrug] I'd rather drink a Cherry Pepsi than attend the Olympics anyhow.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:56 PM on July 21, 2012

Truly, the smooth, crisp refreshment of Pepsi, plus that sassy-tart addition of Cherry? How could you pass it up?

/ambushmarketing
posted by filthy light thief at 3:59 PM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

I'd give it a gold metal in satisfying my thirst!
posted by filthy light thief at 3:59 PM on July 21, 2012 [10 favorites]

(redacted) Blue
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:00 PM on July 21, 2012 [35 favorites]

So any word yet when the Olympics will be renamed The GE Mcdonalds Cadbury Coke Games?

I am partly avoiding the Olympics because of the overt marketing and partly because I prefer the winter games.
posted by littlesq at 4:02 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Surely this is a mistake. Someone is confusing the real Olympics with the fake Olympics from Twenty Twelve.
posted by Dr. Zira at 4:02 PM on July 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

The is why I rooted for Steve Ovett back in the day.
posted by le_vert_galant at 4:03 PM on July 21, 2012 [12 favorites]

I wonder if the Olympics is ever going to become so bloated and ridiculous that we all decide the best thing to do is put it to sleep. Or if it's just to continue in this ridiculous fashion.
posted by bleep at 4:03 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

He really put his Nike in his mouth.
posted by hal9k at 4:04 PM on July 21, 2012 [11 favorites]

Why not complete the idiocy? Make cheating an official part of the Olympics, provided the cheat is sponsored by someone. "This 10 meter head start is officially brought to you by McDonald's." We're past the point where purity has any point.
posted by ifandonlyif at 4:07 PM on July 21, 2012 [15 favorites]

Previously from The Guardian on ambush marketing:
2008: Obama speech is "ambushed" by Abercrombie & Fitch "models" (or maybe not).
2010:"World Cup beer sponsors are upstaged by rival's 36 blondes". "The stunt involved 36 young women dressed in bright orange mini-dresses showing up to capture the cameras' attention. And it worked... until all 36 women were ejected from the stadium, some with graver charges against them."
"The charges have been dropped. Fifa indicated that they have no interest in proceeding with the matter," said National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga. "They reached an agreement with Bavaria Beer company," he said."
posted by iviken at 4:11 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

So any word yet when the Olympics will be renamed The GE Mcdonalds Cadbury Coke Games?

In 2016, Pepsi, realizing that it can't afford to continue being shut out like this, will outbid their competitor in exchange for having the Games renamed "the Pepsi Challenge".
posted by Egg Shen at 4:14 PM on July 21, 2012 [8 favorites]

After all, Coca-Cola hasn't gotten their money's worth if they can't fuck up a Pepsi drinker's day.
posted by Malor at 4:15 PM on July 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

My theory is that the LOCOG is made up entirely of people who hate the Olympics and who are trying to use this opportunity to make a gripping, persuasive, ongoing comment about the fascist tendencies inherent in state-sponsored athletics. It's performance art. It's got to be.
posted by gauche at 4:16 PM on July 21, 2012 [15 favorites]

what happens when Chik-Fil-A sponsors the 2016 games?
posted by facetious at 4:20 PM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

"The man responsible for transforming the Olympic movement into a multi-billion-pound enterprise has criticised London 2012 organisers for "going too far" to protect sponsors." from The Independent.
posted by knapah at 4:21 PM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

bleep: I wonder if the Olympics is ever going to become so bloated and ridiculous that we all decide the best thing to do is put it to sleep. Or if it's just to continue in this ridiculous fashion.

I don't think it'll go away, but it's not doing wonders in the ratings game, considering all things. The 2010 Winter Olympics got similar viewership numbers to American Idol, with American Idol doing better at some broadcast times. American Idol, which ran January 12 to May 26, 2010 . Two weeks of the best athletes from around the world, competing once every four years, versus 12 singers from around the US, in a competition that repeats each year.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:22 PM on July 21, 2012

Are they still planning to use their mobile SAM sites to shoot down any unauthorized banner aircraft?
posted by indubitable at 4:22 PM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

This has really gone too far.

Brought to you by Carl's Jr.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 4:31 PM on July 21, 2012 [7 favorites]

"Are they still planning to use their mobile SAM sites to shoot down any unauthorized banner aircraft?"

I think there is little substance to the rumor that the UK Civil Aviation Authority created mandatory adjustment to the IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) for aircraft flying in local airspace The adjustment would have created CSFF (Corporate Sponsored Friend or Foe) and any aircraft transmitting non-sponsor codes would be shot down.

At some point someone said this implied that terrorism would be acceptable as long as it were sponsored by the appropriate agency (i.e. one with a big checkbook). The optics weren't good so the project was cancelled.
posted by Xoebe at 4:32 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I wonder if the Olympics is ever going to become so bloated and ridiculous that we all decide the best thing to do is put it to sleep.

Put it to sleep? Flush it down the fuckin' toilet. It's an embarrassment.
posted by dobbs at 4:34 PM on July 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

I'd give it a gold metal in satisfying my thirst!

Please, Citizen Poster, step away from the keyboard and place your hands against the wall. The public works pickup squad will be there in minutes. You can pay your debt to society cleaning up garbage (from approved sponsors) at the Olympics Site.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:38 PM on July 21, 2012

Xoebe: Whoa, I had never heard about that. I just remember reading that they were setting up mobile SAM sites bcuz omg terrurists and figured it wasn't a huge leap to suggest that they'd shoot down advertising of non-approved corporations.

I'm tickled, though (from the safe distance of the other side of the planet) that this was actually part of an official plan.
posted by indubitable at 4:39 PM on July 21, 2012

Put it to sleep? Flush it down the fuckin' toilet. It's an embarrassment.

I wish they would just do a total reboot. Disband the official organization and restart in a less blatantly corrupt way. Sports plus nationalism is a fun combination, but there's no reason for this commercial embarrassment.
posted by Forktine at 4:42 PM on July 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

I wonder if the Olympics is ever going to become so bloated and ridiculous that we all decide the best thing to do is put it to sleep. Or if it's just to continue in this ridiculous fashion.

Wonder no more: the cost for broadcasting the Olympics nationally has gotten so high that the two major Canadian broadcasters had to partner together to make a bid for the 2014/2016 games, and even after a second bid of about $75 million the IOC deemed it too low and rejected it, so CBC and CTV said fuck it and now the IOC won't get anything and Canadians will just watch it on American networks or the internet anyways,
posted by furtive at 4:45 PM on July 21, 2012 [34 favorites]

The real question is at what point we start hearing about the bidding wars to sponsor the medals. Everybody has their price, and clearly the Olympics aren't even trying to pretend otherwise, so how long can it really be till someone makes a serious offer for, say, awarding the McDonalds Gold Medal in Men's Hundred Metre?
posted by Tomorrowful at 4:46 PM on July 21, 2012

I also wonder if all the digital "Facebook of Sex" ads will be replaced with "Olympics of Sex" ads any time soon, 'cause I'd click on that at least once.
posted by furtive at 4:47 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Much of what LOCOG has done is outrageous, but in fairness it is necessary to point out that if you actually read all of the Daily Telegraph linked to regarding police officers and their snacks rather than just reading the headline, it goes on to say:

However, after LOCOG was made aware of the strict interpretation of their rules by Thames Valley Police chiefs and the discord of officers, they spoke to the police and issued clarification. "The revised guidance amounts to a major climbdown by our top brass who have realised they were taking the 'no branding or advertising' rules a tad too literally," said one police officer involved in the Dorney Rowing Lake events. "It is a victory for commonsense - but if we hadn't kicked up a fuss, they would have had us decanting our crisps and pop into unmarked containers."

A spokesman for LOCOG said that the rule had been put in place to stop unauthorised brands advertising at the Games and not to stop anyone enjoying the event. The spokesman said: "We wouldn't want to tell people what they can bring into the venues and what they can't. There are rules about brands which are aimed around advertising but petty things like food products aren't the target of it. The rule is there to stop the advertising of brands who are not authorised Olympic brands."

So, no, people won't have to decant their snacks into clear containers.
posted by modernnomad at 4:51 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

I just posted this in the older thread, but it seems relevant here too:
Take down that bunting , citizen. It's not OlympicsTM approved merchandise.
You'll celebrate properly or not at all.
posted by Mezentian at 4:53 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Does anybody else feel like this is free, unspoken advertising for Pepsi, Nestle, etc.? It's like when Delicious imploded into its own self-imposed PR disaster. Pinboard just put on its house pants while waiting for the ding of the microwave popcorn in preparations for the great big show. If corporations are people, Coke is that guy at the party making sure all the guests are using his new branded business card coasters. FFS, it's not even his party!

I also can't help but wonder what uncountable masses of viewers watching at home will be thinking when they see the Olympics on TV while chowing down Burger King. It's a bit of an ironic laugh to sit there in the comfort of your own home seeing the ridiculous lengths McDonald's has gone to in branding this event, and knowing that in your own small, accidental way, you've completely undermined their efforts. The sociological effects of those little scenarios are going to do more for these nonsponsor brands than the corporate strategery that in the end just looks like they're trying too damn hard. It's like they're not at all concerned with how it looks from here. The messages they're sending to the London residents, England commuters, the rest of the UK, the other brands, and ultimately all the consumers beyond those in Olympic park...talk about missing the forest for the fucking trees.

So I'm thinking, yeah, these companies can go to the ends of the moneyed Earth to make sure those city blocks with the cameras pointing in on them all diligently capture a pristine image of a competitor-free landscape. It's like they're literally trying to recreate the Monopoly board. Like they forgot that the world they actually care about exists out here. Where the rest of the people live and shop and watch their little Olympic game.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:53 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Personally, I use the sign of the Olympic Rings as a sign of which brands to avoid.
posted by Mezentian at 4:58 PM on July 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

There should be some sort of Brand Olympics. Different companies compete on quality, price, service and other things customers care about. The winner gets to be the official brand of what-have-you at the Olympics. The losers have to pay for the Olympics.
posted by ifandonlyif at 5:04 PM on July 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

Ha ha, you guys used the word "citizen". Nobody in authority does that anymore.

I'm gonna go watch Consumer Kane.
posted by adamdschneider at 5:08 PM on July 21, 2012 [8 favorites]

"There should be some sort of Brand Olympics. Different companies compete on quality, price, service and other things customers care about. The winner gets to be the official brand of what-have-you at the Olympics. The losers have to pay for the Olympics."

Well, that doesn't sound very capitalist or sportsmanlike!
posted by iamkimiam at 5:13 PM on July 21, 2012

There should be some sort of Brand Olympics. Different companies compete on quality, price, service and other things customers care about.

Some sort of Battle Royale, perhaps?
Or, as they might say in the French, La Battle Royale du Mort?
posted by Mezentian at 5:14 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

CBC and CTV said fuck it and now the IOC won't get anything and Canadians will just watch it on American networks or the internet anyways,

It's pissed me off to no end that the CBC lost Olympics rights. No delaying major events for prime time. Lots of whipping around to "lesser sports" that get little attention. And Brian Williams interviewing some 19 year old woman from Moose Brain, Alberta, who had an all-time best finish of 18th in the 1500 meter underwater samba. It was quaint, in a way.

And compared to the over-the-top production of the games on NBC, it highlighted what makes the Olympics virtuous -- a bunch of kids showing up every two years to set personal bests, further peace, and fuck each others' brains out.

Well, maybe not the last part as much. But at least you got to watch the sports and not Bob Costas making 15 pointless Yankees references a night.

Speaking of, my niece worked the '06 Games as a production assistant. According to her, Bob Costas is even more a dick than you think he is, and Brian Williams is every bit the nice guy you think he is.
posted by dw at 5:33 PM on July 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

Rollerball in 2016!
posted by damo at 5:34 PM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

And speaking of NBC, they're broadcasting some 5000+ hours of coverage across all their networks and online.

The Paralympics? Zero. That's right. Zero.

All while they're promoting athletes with disabilities on all their websites and media networks.

Pathetic.
posted by dw at 5:44 PM on July 21, 2012 [8 favorites]

Rollerball in 2016!


"The game was created to demonstrate the futility of individual effort. And the game must do its work. The Energy Corporation has done all it can, and if a champion defeats the meaning for which the game was designed, then he must lose. I hope you agree with my reasoning."
posted by vitabellosi at 6:13 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

All of this has really poisoned me against the games.* I've found myself making conscious decisions to avoid products by sponsors as well. If this isn't excessive enough to cause some sort of sustained backlash, I can't imagine that anything else will be (especially since most protests against the excess power given sponsors is pretty much a short jump away from being upset that your favorite multi-national corporate entity was prevented from expressing their human right to speech).

* Of course, living in Japan, my options for actually watching the games boils down to swimming (Kitajima), judo (duh), women's soccer (Nadeshiko Japan!!!!...kill me), and possibly gymnastics. There will be next to no coverage of any other sport, simply because Japan is not expected to medal. The Olympic Games, or as broadcast in Japan, Games With Japanese Athletes!
posted by Ghidorah at 6:14 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

A spokesman for LOCOG said that the rule had been put in place to stop unauthorised brands advertising at the Games and not to stop anyone enjoying the event. The spokesman said: "We wouldn't want to tell people what they can bring into the venues and what they can't. There are rules about brands which are aimed around advertising but petty things like food products aren't the target of it. The rule is there to stop the advertising of brands who are not authorised Olympic brands."

I'm sorry, this sounds like blatant damage control. It's true they've not done any damage control around any of the other idiotic things they've done, but I can't imagine how a whole department would get the idea to do something like that out of thin air.

I've went from being marginal interested/apathetic about the Olympics to actively hating them. Great job, Olympics Committee!
posted by winna at 6:23 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

I've went from being marginal interested/apathetic about the Olympics to actively hating them. Great job, Olympics Committee!

Ah yes, this sounds like a case of Olympic Rage Syndrome, often found in populations local to the biennial observance of The Olympic GamesTM. The only cure is watching the closing ceremonies so that you may laugh hollowly at Those Poor BastardsTM who have to do it next time.

Sincerely yours,
survivors of the Atlanta'96 epidemic
posted by catlet at 6:29 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Police arrested actors for spilling custard, say Olympic protesters: Former Games commissioner says 25 officers took performers away in handcuffs at demonstration against sponsorship
posted by homunculus at 6:30 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

* Of course, living in Japan, my options for actually watching the games boils down to swimming (Kitajima), judo (duh), women's soccer (Nadeshiko Japan!!!!...kill me), and possibly gymnastics. There will be next to no coverage of any other sport, simply because Japan is not expected to medal. The Olympic Games, or as broadcast in Japan, Games With Japanese Athletes!

I'm not an Olympics fan at all. But I've loved the times that I've been living in a small country during the Olympics. The coverage is so wildly different than it is in the US -- you'd never know it here, but there are all kinds of random events, like underwater bowling or group soccer dancing, where it turns out that only Yemen, Haiti, and the Republic of I'veNeverHeardOfItIstan have competitive teams, and the medal counts are always framed in terms of traditional rivalries. Who cares that the US, Russia, and China might each win 9000 medals, when you could spend hours discussing how Guyana won two bronzes while Surinam leads by a silver?
posted by Forktine at 6:31 PM on July 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

Some sort of Battle Royale, perhaps?
Or, as they might say in the French, La Battle Royale du Mort? with cheese
posted by FelliniBlank at 6:37 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Protesters plan to target equestrian star with links to Assad regime: Syria is sending its largest Olympic team since the Moscow Games in 1980
posted by homunculus at 6:40 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

On Friday, Baron Sebastian Coe, the conservative politician, former athlete, and Nike board member who is chair of LOCOG (the London Organizing Committee) for the 2012 games, ignited a furor when he said anyone wearing a Pepsi T-shirt is likely to be "booted out" because it would upset Coca-Cola, who is an official sponsor.

The Brass Eye couldn't come up with something more ridiculous.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:08 PM on July 21, 2012

The Paralympics look to be orders of magnitude more awesome, anyway.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:14 PM on July 21, 2012 [8 favorites]

...Baron Sebastian Coe...

Every time I read the OP, my mind keeps making me read that as Sasha Baron Cohen. Mostly because my brain thinks it too dumb not to be a prank.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:16 PM on July 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

"Preemptively arrested by the brand police" is really the perfect slogan for this event.

"London 2012: Preemptively Arrested By The Brand Police."
posted by mhoye at 7:42 PM on July 21, 2012

The 2012 Olympics are like if mathowie decided to maximise his ROI by using fullscreen clickthrough ads and autoplaying audio in popunders. Mentioning non-sponsor products in threads would be a permaban, and signups would cost $400.

After a while, everyone says "Screw this, how is this supposed to be fun?".
posted by dunkadunc at 7:48 PM on July 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

how long can it really be till someone makes a serious offer for, say, awarding the McDonalds Gold Medal in Men's Hundred Metre?

2020 at the latest.

The very latest.
posted by mediareport at 8:01 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Telegraph gallery of Famous/infamous sports marketing stunts e.g. Image 3 is Linford Christie's advertising contact lenses at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics

Businessinsider list of ambush marketing examples including the gold Nike shoes of the 1996 Olympics

BBC article on 2004 Athens Olympics and the difficult struggle against ambush marketing

NYT on ambush marketing control attempts at the 2008 Beijing Olympics


Looks like its a real and serious problem for major sports events

Question: why can't official sponsors just sue ambushes who go too far?
posted by Bwithh at 8:08 PM on July 21, 2012

I remember how magnificent Coe v Ovett was. Shame he turned into such a monumental Tory pustule.
posted by Decani at 8:16 PM on July 21, 2012

A Police Federation member for Thames Valley Police, who are policing all rowing events for the Olympic and Paralypic Games at Dorney Lake, in Eton, Berks., said: "I'd like to see a security guard try to tell a police officer to empty his lunch into clear bags.

"They'd have to be very brave because the answer he'd get would be very short indeed."


What are the official Olympic™ swearwords?
posted by deborah at 8:46 PM on July 21, 2012

What are the official Olympic™ swearwords?

Why would you ask such a Pepsi stupid question?
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 9:24 PM on July 21, 2012 [6 favorites]

I'm increasingly under the impression that since 1936 every city that has been an Olympic host has used the opportunity to see just how well they could do fascism.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 10:05 PM on July 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Every time I read the OP, my mind keeps making me read that as Sasha Baron Cohen. Mostly because my brain thinks it too dumb not to be a prank.

I keep reading it as Baron Sasha Cohen, and I think, wow, he got promoted.
posted by homunculus at 10:08 PM on July 21, 2012

If you care about this, boycott the Olympics. Don't even watch it on the Internet, because they'll have figured out how to monetize every last zero and one by 2014. The only way to win is not to play.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:24 PM on July 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

"We have to protect the rights of the sponsor because in large part they pay for the Games."

I wonder what would happen if we the actual spectators were to bear the cost of the events... would ticket prices go through the roof?
posted by danl at 11:51 PM on July 21, 2012

Tickets aren't cheap as it is - for all the talk of issuing tickets for £20.12, nobody I know who has them has paid less than £300, and that's considered a cheap price.
posted by mippy at 3:52 AM on July 22, 2012

There is a witty article in The Guardian about olympic brand protection, with the following bizarre anecdote:

Last week, a cheeky chemist in Truro, Paul Deakley, put up a humorous handmade sign, written in marker pen, saying: "This summer, why not soothe your Olympic Rings with Anusol." Even though the haemorrhoid ointment manufacturers had not asked Deakley to advertise their product in any manner at all, let alone such a controversial one, it was decided that Deakley's business, which is not an official Olympic sponsor, was profiting by association with the Olympics.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 4:02 AM on July 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

profiting by association with the Olympics

Someday soon, may that be an obvious oxymoron.

Just do it.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:35 AM on July 22, 2012

All track and field contestants will now be required to drink the goo from inside Cadbury eggs instead of water before and after each event.
posted by item at 4:36 AM on July 22, 2012

I wonder what would happen if we the actual spectators were to bear the cost of the events... would ticket prices go through the roof?

A bit hard to give a direct answer but LOCOG gets roughly 600m pounds from tickets and another 700m pounds from sponsorship. But it also gets another 1billion pounds from IOC, quite a lot of which is presumably from TV rights and those top-tier, multi-year, global sponsorships, which are different from local, ie limited to Britain, sponsorships that LOCOG directly gets (think Coke vs Sainsbury's; one is a global sponsor, the other is a Britain-only sponsor for the Paraolympics).

Further complicating the puzzle is the fact that some sponsors pay in services, G4S and the IT sponsor (forgot its name) being examples.

Finally, also note that Olympics is unique among modern sport in *not* having in-stadium
advertising; apparently, they find it "crass" (yes, the irony rankles)
posted by the cydonian at 4:42 AM on July 22, 2012

Incidentally, between the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, Britain has just been exposed to two forms of commercialization that contrast each other tremendously. So, on the one hand, you have had a situation where every Tom, Dick and Harry wrapped their products in the Union Jack and unleashed the corniest of royal puns (that mineral water firm, whatsitcalled, calling itself 'queentissentially British eg), here you have a situation where Westfield Shopping Centre, the mall closest to the Olympic Park, reputedly has zero Olympics advertising.

I cringed at both, and still trying to decide which is worse.
posted by the cydonian at 4:53 AM on July 22, 2012

it was decided that Deakley's business, which is not an official Olympic sponsor, was profiting by association with the Olympics.

But, but, but how will I know which hemorrhoid cream to use if the Olympics committee doesn't tell me?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:20 AM on July 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Coe may have been a great runner one time long ago, but he has made a complete ass out of himself in this olympics, this Pepsi thing being just the latest idiotic thing he has recently said. When the security, or lack thereof, story came out recently he could not help himself from trying to downplay and perhaps even cover up this snafu. It was a scene straight out of a Monty Python sketch, but it was real.
posted by caddis at 11:33 AM on July 22, 2012

While you are studiously avoiding anything related to the Olympics, be sure to avoid voting for Mitt Romney. After all, he ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah. If the IOC are his friends he isn't my friend.
posted by BentFranklin at 12:23 PM on July 22, 2012

Wonder no more: the cost for broadcasting the Olympics nationally has gotten so high that the two major Canadian broadcasters had to partner together to make a bid for the 2014/2016 games, and even after a second bid of about $75 million the IOC deemed it too low and rejected it, so CBC and CTV said fuck it and now the IOC won't get anything and Canadians will just watch it on American networks or the internet anyways,

It's just the summer games. Canadians know the real Olympics happen on ice.
posted by srboisvert at 12:52 PM on July 22, 2012

Oh, the Olympics branding, for all it's utter shittiness, is far more bearable than the jubilee marketing. It's just like Google ads - you know where they are and what they look like and you can tune it out. We've a huge billboard in the shop at the bottom of the road for Cocadburduracellvisa or something. Just noise.

But if you suddenly run into a jubilee-themed, union jack printed toilet brush in your local hardware store, well, it sticks in your mind. And it works, too. I now think of Primce Charles every time I clean the loo.
posted by cromagnon at 4:03 PM on July 22, 2012

While you are studiously avoiding anything related to the Olympics, be sure to avoid voting for Mitt Romney. After all, he ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah.

Mitt Romney's Olympics Bailed Out by Tax Payers
posted by homunculus at 4:17 PM on July 22, 2012

modernnomad: So, no, people won't have to decant their snacks into clear containers.

Because someone complained, and a PR mess ensued. Not because they didn't want it to go like this (necessarily), but because someone caught the clue that a PR shitstorm was about to slap them in the face.

Or, more charitably, because they read the regulations they wrote, and saw that those regs were being interpreted literally (as regulations should be, or else they're poorly written), and said, "Gee, that could be used kinda overbearingly, couldn't it? We better prevent that with a verbal override, but not by changing any of the written procedures."

Either is possible. One is true.
posted by IAmBroom at 7:34 PM on July 22, 2012

2012: When wearing a Pepsi shirt is a subversive act.
posted by captain cosine at 11:57 PM on July 24, 2012

Anyone else finding it hard not to think of Jennifer Government?
posted by knapah at 12:50 AM on July 25, 2012

Overzealous linking there, oops.
posted by knapah at 12:52 AM on July 25, 2012

David Runciman on London's Olympic History
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:54 AM on August 7, 2012