Today's Brandlympics round-up kicks off with Google's homepage salute to the artistic gymnastics men's rings.
Olympians Take On Brand Police
Plenty of brands that haven’t signed on to sponsor the Olympics are plenty annoyed with the heavy-handed methods of the London Organizing Committee to seemingly keep anyone from saying the word Olympics or doodling the famous five rings on their notebooks without heavy fines and public embarrassment coming their way. But it’s not just corporations and brands that are annoyed. It’s also the Olympians themselves. Olympic athletes are forbidden from mentioning any brand names in the lead up to the Games and then during the Olympics themselves. Now a few of them are speaking out, particularly on the Olympics' favored platform of Twitter. A few tweeted protest messages Sunday against the regulation that keeps them from mentioning the brand name whose dimes and dollars have helped them get to the Games. According to the New York Times, American high jumper Jamie Nieto was probably the most brash, tweeting, “I am honored 2 be an Olympian, but #WeDemandChange #rule40 @NBCOlympics It’s time for Olympians 2 be compensated! I am a PRO Track & Field Ath!”
Vendors Testing the Brand Limits
Because of the tough brand rules imposed by LOCOG and the IOC, sushi sold at London 2012 comes without soy sauce or wasabi because “the vendors are unable to find” packaging that doesn’t include any brand logos, Stuff reports. Meanwhile, some vendors are “selling chocolate, chewing gum and savory snacks from under the counter as they cannot display items not produced by key sponsors,” the site notes. Vendors outside those areas are using stunts that are Games related to help juice sales, such as a glasses company, Specsavers, that “has teased organizers over poor eyesight after” a South Korean flag was flown at a North Korean soccer game.
NBC London Olympics coverage sets records despite angry tweets
Olympic fans have been upset that NBC isn’t broadcasting every event live, even as the network uses a number of channels and online options to broadcast an unprecedented amount of Olympics info. Instead, some material is held until prime time so Americans who are tuning in the evenings can catch all the biggest moments. Even with that, though, NBC is breaking ratings records with this Olympics, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Over the weekend, Olympic programming averaged 35.8 million total viewers in prime time, according to Nielsen — the best first weekend for any Olympics in history,” the Times reports. "If people are really hating the Olympic coverage, they have an odd way of showing it, as ratings are terrific by almost any objective measure," said Andrew Billings, a professor and sports broadcasting expert at the University of Alabama. One good sign: the site reinstated the British journalist who was barred for protesting NBC's time delay and gave out an exec's email address to complain.
Visit Britain Invites World to Recreate Opening Ceremonies
Friday night's London 2012 Opening Ceremonies brought British history (well, some of it) to life for the estimated one billion viewers who tuned in. Now Visit Britain is inviting the public to have their own Danny Boyle-like experience of Britain by visiting the sites referenced in the "Pandemonium" of the kick-off spectacle. For example, "Possibly one of the most exciting points in the Opening Ceremony was the arrival of 007 with The Queen. Like James Bond you can visit inside Buckingham Palace this summer until the end of October, and see the State Rooms and the "Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration" exhibition. An exciting event after the Games will be the release of the 23rd Bond film Skyfall. It is the 50th anniversary of Bond in film, which began with Sean Connery in Dr No. The Barbican is celebrating with an exhibition of 50 Years of Bond Style." Sony today released the latest Skyfall trailer, below:
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