It’s a wrap for the London 2012 Olympics, and in addition to the new athletic records that were set, fans, brands and athletes interacting together collectively took the gold as the undisputed winner of the first Social Olympics.

From the opening ceremony on July 27th, which generated 9.66 million tweets (and in the next 24 hours more than all those during the entire 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing), a total of more than 150 million tweets were shared during and about the Olympics.

World's Fastest Man™ Usain Bolt was the most talked about athlete, inspiring a blinding fast 80,000 tweets per minute (TPM) during his gold medal-winning 200m sprint and 74,000 TPM during his 100m run, while the Spice Girls reunion at the closing ceremony inspired 116,000 TPM.

Twitter's recap highlights other social highlights of these games including: Michael Phelps and Tom Daley trailing Bolt as the most discussed athletes, and Andy Murray, third-highest at 57,000 TPM after winning the gold medal in men’s tennis singles.Continue reading...

In addition to featuring a Who's Who — including The Who — of British music (Annie Lennox, Ray Davies, the Spice Girls, George Michael, Madness, Blur), the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games paid tribute to British fashion brands.

The models hitting the Union Jack-shaped stage: Kate Moss (above) and Naomi Campbell in Alexander McQueen, Lily Donaldson wearing Vivienne Westwood, Stella Tennant in Christopher Kane, model/singer Karen Elson in Burberry, Lily Cole sporting Erdem, Georgia May Jagger (the offspring of fashion/music royalty Mick Jagger and Jerry Hall) wearing Victoria Beckham (a double brandcameo for the Spice Girl turned designer), Jourdan Dunn (Jonathan Saunders with headwear by milliner Stephen Jones) and David Gandy wearing Paul Smith.

The soundtrack: David Bowie's Fashion, of course. Bowie couldn't be included in the musical portion from the ceremony as he hasn't performed live since 2006.Continue reading...

Always a bonanza for marketers (as the New York Times' Stuart Elliott notes), campaigns pegged to the Olympics are often overly serious and attempt to be tearjerkers, as P&G knows all too well. Still, its Old Spice brand is retickling its Old Spice Guy funny bone by partnering again with W+K on an Olympics commercial. "I Will Live Forever," above, stars a skinny hero who listens to a self-help tape and somehow manages to win a slew of medals and a ton of hearts while smelling good all along the way.Continue reading...

Former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell just revealed her lingerie collection for Next in the UK. Available in spring 2012, Halliwell made no bones about her goal: "Basically, my aim was to make boobs look bigger and bums smaller."

Halliwell is just the latest pop star who has discovered that licensing her brand for a consumer line is far more lucrative than making music. From Kylie Minogue to Jessica Simpson to Jennifer Lopez to Gwen Stefani to Lady Gaga, pop stars and brand licensers are making beautiful, profitable music together.Continue reading...

"With all the new media outlets out there, with all the noise, a voice of authority and calm like Vogue becomes more important than ever. The more eyes on fashion, the more opinions about fashion, the more exploration of fashion around the world, the better it is for Vogue.

Vogue is like Nike or Coca-Cola—this huge global brand. I want to enhance it, I want to protect it, and I want it to be part of the conversation." — Anna Wintour to the Wall Street Journal.

Wintour was interviewed for "Brand Anna," a WSJ. magazine profile of the Vogue US editor-in-chief, in which the celeb-fixated editrix also admits, "I'm not terribly proud of putting the Spice Girls on the cover."