UK to treat ambush marketers like terrorists at London 2012?

"Ambush Marketing" is a popular stunt by underdog brands who hire people to infiltrate public and sporting events, then do something provocative to get attention. One of the most infamous is Golden Palace, who sent a male streaker out on the field during the 2004 Super Bowl broadcast.

Not that I want to see this, mind you.

Some of us find this amusing. Official sponsors who have paid to be upstaged by some naked guy do not. And when it comes to the Olympic Games, with multi-million dollar international sponsorships at stake, the lack of amusement can have an impact on the very fabric of the legal system.

The Dim Dim Girls must be stopped at all costs!

According to The Drum:

Revised legislation has been issued this week stating that exhibitionists baring their flesh for marketing stunts in and around 2012 Olympic venues could face criminal charges and fines of up to £20,000 in the magistrates court.

CEOs, marketing directors and other senior staff of brands appearing in "ambush marketing" in the vicinity of Olympic venues will be presumed guilty unless they can prove their innocence by proving that they had no knowledge of the activity or that they took reasonable steps to prevent it happening.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) noted the risk of human bodies being used for ambush advertising following concerns raised in a recent consultation process. It has promised to "make additional changes to prohibit advertising on the human body". It says the legislation is "reasonable and proportionate", and that the matters a person is required to prove in their defence are "entirely within their knowledge".

Prove your innocence? Are they serious?

Now anyone with a financial or personal reason to cause legal trouble for marketing high-ups can just draw a logo on their bum, whip off their pants, and let the charges fly. London-based advertising lawyer Nick Johnson is quoted: "Exactly how is a CEO, a marketing director or a legal director supposed to prove they had no knowledge at all of an infringing act featuring their brand?"

And what happened to The Man having to prove guilt? Usually these kinds of draconian legislation are enacted to fight terrorists, not to protect brand integrity or sponsorship deals.

via

I'm not defending ambush marketing. It is not playing fair. But this kind of legal pandering to the Olympics and big brands? Bullshit.

F'd Ad Fridays: Team France bringing back the original Olympic uniforms

As an antidote to the chauvinist one-sidedness to that last post, here is nudity done right (IMHO).

It's an online video for Athena, a popular men's underwear brand. It's a fake "making of" for EURO RSCG 360's upcoming Athena campaign for the Olympics, featuring members of Team France in very traditional Olympic uniforms. To make the subjects more comfortable, the entire crew and agency staff are compelled to join in.



See? Playful nudity can be fun for everyone. (And hilarious, when you see the doughy CDs standing beside the Olympians.)

And then there's this line...

Via Ads of The World

Britain: What's so great about it?*

(*With a nod to every Irish, Scottish and Welshman/woman who has ever uttered that phrase.)

In advance of the 2012 London Olympics, The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport has launched a postcard and poster campaign that cranks the nationalism up to WWII-era levels.

This time, however, the propaganda is aimed at the outside world. The campaign was developed by the DCMS on behalf of the Prime Minister, working with colleagues at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK Trade & Investment, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, VisitBritain, and the British Council. 

The examples of "greatness" run the gamut from general themes like environment, scenery, research and technology to modern icons such as Wallace & Gromit, Richard Branson,  serial wife-killer Henry VIII and shoe fetishist Nicholas Kirkwood.

Below I've posted all the postcards (ignore the crop marks, they're converted PDFs). What do you think of Great Britain's newfound public patriotism? Is it just what they need, or is that kind of patriotism a little scary these days?

Thanks to Neil H. for the tip.

The decline and fall of art and design, as seen in Olympic advertising through history

The Olympic Games FB page posted this gallery of Olympics posters through history.

Watch as the style transitions from neoclassicism to awesome art nouveau, through homoerotic constructivism, hyper-nationalism, and mid-century minimalism to shit, shitty and shittier.  (Although Atlanta's not bad.)

I took the liberty of adding London 2012, the "XXX Olympiad" that has been described as pornographic Simpsons fanfic:

Let the Games begin...