Nike closed out the London 2012 Olympics in China with a gold medal ambush marketing performance that parlayed its Find Your Greatness fauxlympics stunt to new heights.

We already noted how Nike retooled its campaign for China's star hurdler Liu Xiang after the former gold medalist imploded in the first few steps of a preliminary race. 

Now, Nike has used the same format — inspirational message superimposed on a photo — to suggest its support for many of China's star Olympic athletes, whether the Swoosh sponsored them or not. Goodness Gracious, Greatness Wall of China!Continue reading...

London 2012 official sportswear partner Adidas released a mock music video on Sunday, in keeping with the Olympics' closing ceremony tribute to British music through the years. The video features members of Team GB including track and field star Jessica Ennis and Sir Chris Hoy. It's "directed" by David Beckham, with the British Olympians lip-synching Queen's "Can't Stop Me Now," and features the Twitter hashtag #stagetaken — a reference to the brand's "Take the Stage" campaign. 

"Our presence in and around the Olympic Games was fantastic," stated Herbert Hainer, CEO of the adidas Group, in a press release wrapping up the brand's London 2012 efforts and results. "It translates into record Olympic merchandise sales and a record year for the adidas Group in the UK. This clearly sets the stage for us to achieve market leadership in the UK by 2015."

An end-of-Games promotion from adidas invited fans to share their most "all-in" moment from the Games to win a pair of limited-edition London 2012 shoes from its Olympics customization studio as you can see below:Continue reading...

The need for jobs in a job-starved America can create some interesting political dynamics. Witness how New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is going out of his way today to praise practically every other politician in the state for having anything to do with bringing new PepsiCo jobs in yogurt-making to upstate — and implicitly thumbling his nose at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has put PepsiCo on the Most Wanted list with his proposed big-soda ban.

"This is a new New York State, partnering with the private sector to create jobs and grow new industries," Cuomo said in a PepsiCo press release today. He's been notably lauded even by some Republicans for making economic development (tagline: "New York - Open for Business") a priority of his administration, including a high-profile TV campaign promoting economic investments in New York State, with not only PepsiCo but Fage bringing their yogurt works to upstate New York.Continue reading...

Would you buy a T-shirt with a Latin Kings gang symbol on it? How about a backpack with the Bloods gang sign? Would you even try and trademark such a symbol? The branding of illegal activity is usually done underground, consisting of tattoos and graffiti mostly. So why French company, Early Flicker, would try and trademark the Anonymous logo and slogan is un peu bizarre.

Tweeted by @Asher Wolf yesterday, it appears Apollinaire Auffret from Early Flicker applied to the Institut National De La Propriete Industrielle (INPI) to protect the logo and slogan. The hacktivist group's logo consists of a headless man in a suit with a question mark for a head, standing before a globe and a wreath. The slogan reads "Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us." Early Flicker is an eBay store that has a range of different product categories, including t-shirts, handbags, and accessories.

The little e-tialer is taking on a big dog with its latest bid. Anonymous condones crime by illegaly releasing protected IP and temporarily bringing down large corporate and brands' websites, but don't like any legal moves that impinge on their rights. So, naturally, Anonymous has already issued this response:Continue reading...

President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign video, released in April, introduced his rallying cry and slogan, “Forward.” But since that day, grammarians, pundits, conservatives and scores more have weighed in on the pros and cons of adding that simple, powerful period at the end of the word.

"It's like 'forward, now stop,' " commented Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of the National Economic Council and an Obama advisor, to the Wall Street Journal. ”It could be worse. It could be 'Forward' comma," which would make it raise the question: 'and now what?'"

GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney mocked the slogan, telling a fundraiser in May, “‘Forward,’ what, over the cliff?”Continue reading...

Olympics sponsor GE is using data visualization to engage the public in the gargantuan logistical underpinning involved in mounting and hosting the Olympic Games.

"What (g)oes into building an Olympic city? GE's chief marketing officer Beth Comstock tweeted from a panel discussion Monday on the future of cities at the London Olympics. "Lots of technology and big machines hidden in plain sight." Her tweet linked to GE's Building the Games interactive map, which (powered by Bing search) features GE's infrastructure work behind the scenes of London 2012.Continue reading...

For a few years, Levi’s has been telling America and then, the world, to go forth, speak out, raise a ruckus, and, while you’re at it, buy some Levi’s. It’s all part of that idea of the jeans-wearing rebel America that was borne out of the Sixties.

Levi's Go Forth campaign launched in 2009 on the Fourth of July, the celebration of one of America’s greatest speak-truth-to-power moments. But this year, the Fourth came and went without Levi’s going forth and marketing. But just when you were at the tail end of your dismay, the San Francisco-based denim giant is delivering.Continue reading...

God help the poor Pepsi-loving soul who wanders through London over the next few weeks. The dreaded brand police are swarming the country in search of any signs of anyone mentioning or attempting to showcase any corporate entity that is a competitor to the official Olympics sponsors, and anyone who even so much as thinks of sponsor Coke’s biggest competitor should fear the consequences. But that's nothing compared to what Nike is staging: the brashest act of ambush marketing in the history of the Olympics Games. And we'll bet they get away with it because, well, it's Nike.Continue reading...