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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > [Olympics] Introducing the next generation of security: Brand Police

[Olympics] Introducing the next generation of security: Brand Police
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The Final Dakar
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Jul 17, 2012, 05:53 AM
 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...s-7945436.html

Hundreds of uniformed Olympics officers will begin touring the country today enforcing sponsors' multimillion-pound marketing deals, in a highly organised mission that contrasts with the scramble to find enough staff to secure Olympic sites.

...

Under legislation specially introduced for the London Games, they have the right to enter shops and offices and bring court action with fines of up to £20,000.

Olympics organisers have warned businesses that during London 2012 their advertising should not include a list of banned words, including "gold", "silver" and "bronze", "summer", "sponsors" and "London", if they give the impression of a formal connection to the Olympics.

At the 40 Olympics venues, 800 retailers have been banned from serving chips to avoid infringing fast-food rights secured by McDonald's.

This is what happens when you allow an event to become far too expensive and have to lean heavily on corporate support to fund it. It' also as ludicrous as the NFL trying to claim people couldn't use the term "Super Bowl" without their permission. I mean, you can't sell fries?!
     
andi*pandi
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Jul 17, 2012, 07:45 AM
 
I can see patrolling to keep knockoff logo products to a minimum, but you can't ban those words. That's just silly.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jul 17, 2012, 07:53 AM
 
It might be silly, but it looks like they legislated the silliness.
     
subego
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Jul 17, 2012, 09:15 AM
 
IIUC, that was among the perks offered to the Olympic Committee, "choose us and we'll alter our laws to give you crazy-ass trademark protection".

Supposedly, the Home Office also used London's famous piles of surveillance cameras to follow the Olympic Committee members and change red traffic lights to green for them.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jul 17, 2012, 09:19 AM
 
I don't understand why cities are slobbering to get the Olympics when it's been shown as a money-losing prospect in the long run (or am I mistaken?).
     
subego
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Jul 17, 2012, 09:35 AM
 
As someone who lives in a city which tried to get the 2016 Olympics and got brutally backhanded by the OC in the first round, it sure lost us a shitload of money.

To raise funds, we sold the rights to distribute parking tickets to a private company for the next 70 years.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jul 17, 2012, 09:38 AM
 
That kind of reinforces how ludicrous all this has become.
     
Athens
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Jul 17, 2012, 09:40 AM
 
It got really stupid in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics. A Pizza place called Olympic Pizza which have been in Business for 25 years with that name got yelled at by the 2010 IOC, so do Torch Honda and many other businesses with "offending names" or products that have been in business long before it was even a dream in Vancouver. It is taken way to far.
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The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jul 17, 2012, 09:40 AM
 
Torch Honda? They think they own the rights to Torch?
     
andi*pandi
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Jul 17, 2012, 10:08 AM
 
I read an interesting article in the Globe about it... for the host city the benefits are new infrastructure that is left after the Games. They have planned it so visiting athlete housing gets turned into affordable housing, for instance. New parks and such.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/06/30/london-olympics-the-big-money-games/GFOABwcRhBhI7Zlk3yIA4L/story.html

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Athens
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Jul 17, 2012, 10:35 AM
 
Some cities do some don't. Depends on how much has to be built and how much of it will be used afterwards. For Vancouver it was mostly all positive. We already had the majority of the infrastructure to host it including a large enough stadium. But I believe cities like Salt Lake, Montreal, they didn't benefit nearly as much and spent a lot more. On the financial side of things I think I read some where Vancouver was one of the most successful Winter Olympics in over 20 years. Was not the case for Calgary in the 1988 Olympics.
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P
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Jul 17, 2012, 10:57 AM
 
I think Montreal -76 and Munich -72 are the two that made so many cities back off. Both lost money, Munich had the terror attack and Montreal was generally not well organized. I think LA was the only city to apply in 1984, but they made it a great success both organizationally and financially. That showed that it CAN be done without breaking the bank, but it's still a very risky proposition.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
Athens
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Jul 17, 2012, 11:15 AM
 
One needs to question how much security is really needed for the Olympics. The single biggest chunk of costs in the Vancouver Olympics was security. And I believe that is the case for the 2012 games too. Paranoia has added a entire new level of costs on the games.

Vancouver's security costs where estimated to be a billion dollars and the games operating costs itself with Security and venues was 1.8 Billion dollars. The Venues cost about 650 Million dollars. (Btw Im excluding a lot of non Olympic stuff from those costs, the Anti Olympic crowed like to add in convention centers, rapid transit, free way upgrades into the figure, all things that was going to be done with or with out the Olympics.

Its amazing how much the security component of the Olympics sucks up.
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The Final Dakar  (op)
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Jul 24, 2012, 10:58 AM
 
Looks like they walked back some even more ludicrous Brand Security™.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18922964

Locog was forced to clarify its stance on the issue after its chair Lord Coe told the BBC anyone wearing a Pepsi T-shirt may not be allowed access.

Coca-Cola and other sponsors had spent huge sums on the London Games, he said, and their rights must be "protected".
He was pressed by presenter Evan Davis about whether he could, for example, attend an Olympic event wearing a Pepsi t-shirt.

"No, you probably would not be walking in with a Pepsi T-shirt because Coca-Cola are our sponsors," he replied, adding that Coca-Cola had invested millions of pounds both in the Games and grass-roots sport.

In an increasingly testy exchange, the BBC presenter then quizzed Lord Coe on whether he could "go in with Nike trainers on?".

"I think you probably could...Let's sort of put some reality in this. You probably would be able to walk through with Nike trainers. Does that satisfy you?"

Locog later issued a statement clarifying its position, saying that "any individual coming into our venues can wear any item of clothing, branded or otherwise".
     
andi*pandi
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Jul 24, 2012, 11:13 AM
 
It might be easier to patrol the tshirts as the FAA does (ask people to turn their shirt inside out, tape) but really you can't expect people to buy certain shoes just to walk in an event. Either that or hand out free Reeboks or whatever at the door.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Aug 9, 2012, 11:16 AM
 
     
osiris
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Aug 9, 2012, 11:58 AM
 
Geezus, merchant can't even mention Olympics, I presume.
What shame though, all sporting events have gotten out of control in nearly every aspect, excepting curling, of course. That sport kinda needs more brazen commercialism. And nudity.
"Faster, faster! 'Till the thrill of speed overcomes the fear of death." - HST
     
nonhuman
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Aug 9, 2012, 12:03 PM
 
Originally Posted by osiris View Post
Geezus, merchant can't even mention Olympics, I presume.
What shame though, all sporting events have gotten out of control in nearly every aspect, excepting curling, of course. That sport kinda needs more brazen commercialism. And nudity.
Oh, don't worry. It already has nudity: http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/08/02/water-polo-nbc/
     
osiris
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Aug 9, 2012, 12:09 PM
 
Ah, that restores my faith in humanity.
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Waragainstsleep
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Aug 9, 2012, 02:00 PM
 
Kabletown is real? I thought they just made it up for 30 Rock.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
andi*pandi
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Aug 9, 2012, 02:06 PM
 
At this point it's a font nickname for Comcast, I think.

Those swimsuits are wedgietastic.
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Aug 10, 2012, 07:40 AM
 
We need to go deeper.

when Australian BMXer Caroline Buchanan tweeted this picture of "a bucket of unauthorized condoms" (that's Fox Sports's delicate phrasing), they took swift action, removing the renegade contraception and vowing that they would "look into this and ask that they are not handed out to other athletes because Durex are our supplier."
     
ShortcutToMoncton
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Aug 10, 2012, 08:18 AM
 
Call me crazy, but I would refuse to wear a contraceptive that has "REGULAR" stamped across it in bold letters
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mduell
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Aug 10, 2012, 10:05 AM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
It might be easier to patrol the tshirts as the FAA does (ask people to turn their shirt inside out, tape)
When and where does the FAA ever do this?
     
The Final Dakar  (op)
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Aug 10, 2012, 10:10 AM
 
I recall this. I think a brown-skinned dude worried people because he had a shirt with foreign writing (Sanskrit?) and maybe a chick with a slutty phrase.

Edit: I suppose it wasn't the FAA, but the airline.
     
andi*pandi
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Aug 10, 2012, 10:27 AM
 
You know, I'm googling looking for a reference, as I'm sure I've read it somewhere... but can find no official policy just people suggesting in the comments of various articles like this one, to flip a shirt inside out, tape over the bad words, or wear a sweater over it:

http://dcist.com/2012/05/american_airlines_boots_pro-choice.php

(for the record I don't like swearing on tshirts... but I'd be find with the word replaced with f***.)
     
   
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