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The IOC's 'Clean Venue' Policy
Dave21212 writes "Yes folks, the International Olympic Committee's 'Brand Protection Team' will be protecting against the threat of Advertising Terrorism at the games. According to an MSNBC article, the IOC's Karen Webb states 'Our role is to protect all of our sponsor categories and actively monitor ambush activity.' Restricted items include, flags, umbrellas, shirts, hats, and bags with trademarks of rival sponsors. Unofficial brands can be confiscated and with only Coke allowed on Olympic grounds, this brings new meaning to The Pepsi Challenge!"
You can say they may have too much security put up for brand protection at the Athens games, but they've already had a high profile failure... A man wearing a tutu and with the logo of a web-based casino paited on his chest jumped off a diving board into the pool at the diving venue.
The web casino gets all sorts of free worldwide media coverage and they only had to pay the one guy a few hundred dollars... pretty good bang for the advertising buck for a company that has trouble buying ads in mainstream venues.
This is what the Olympic officials most want to avoid. They've got sponsors paying for the right to be associated with the games, and they don't want anybody taking a free ride on their publicity.
Am I the only one who wants to get a bunch of people together wearing color coordinated outfits so that when we sit in the stands we form a giant pepsi logo?