August 12, 2004

Clean Venue Olympics
Strict regulations published by Athens 2004 last week dictate that spectators may be refused admission to events if they are carrying food or drinks made by companies that did not see fit to sponsor the games.

Well, I for one think it's a shame it's too late to organise a living Pepsi logo made from a huge block of spectators wearing red, blue and white shirts. Stupid fucking Olympic pricks. Who thinks this is still about sport?

posted by Skrik 20 years ago
  • [via Boing Boing, BTW.]
  • where to begin reacting to this??? It's quite incredible. It beggars belief. The irony of Coke and MacD's sponsoring the games anyway is hard enough to take, but the perversion of the Olympic ideal by arseholes masquerading as marketing people is staggering. Another good reason not to buy from Coke or MacD's
  • Pepsi, no Coke. Mickey D sucks. This is bad. No fairness in this that I see.
  • More stuff about this - it's not just the Olympics who do this. Also, some Canadian athletes apparently aren't being allowed to blog, and others have the restriction that if they do blog, they can't infringe on the area of "journalism".
  • From reading the article, these restrictions appear to be coming from the IOC and the Greek organizers, not the sponsors. Discouraging "ambush marketing" is a good idea, but this seems to be the wrong way to do it.
  • yet another reason to ignore or eliminate the Olympics and all the related drug, money, marketing and corruption shenanigans; or at worst advocate against them coming to your city (it is, alas, too late for mine. Resist while you can...)
  • In light of recent world events, this can be viewed in the light of security concerns. Sponsor-products can be checking upon arrival and continually monitored, while outside food and drink can, well, contain *anything*.
  • please pardon my crappy grammar
  • Yeah, it's a good thing Kalashnikof and Heckler & Koch aren't official sponsors then. And it's just as easy to drop a chunk of C4 into a Happy Meal box as it is into anything else, so I really doubt this can be tied into "security measures". It's just a bunch of IOC corporate hacks looking out for their gravy train.
  • Whilst following a link on the other site I noticed that Adidas is listed as an Official Supporter. Do you think they're pleased that the design for the medal is dominated by the image of a greek goddess. Bet they're thinking 'did they have to use Nike'.
  • AAARRRGGGG!!! *pitiful yet futile scream into the darkness that is the modern world*
  • SideDish's primal scream is brought to you in part by Cepacol Sore Throat Lozenges. Cepacol, for when you just can't take it anymore.
  • middleclasstool is one of them! Burn Him! Burn Him! Just thought we needed a scapegoat for our general frustration with corporate greed, sorry middleclasstool
  • Mmm hmm... the "anti-ad" ad angle. Clever...
  • The shit list is Coca-Cola, John Hancock, Kodak, McDonalds, Panasonic, Samsung, Atos, Sports Illustrated, Visa, and Xerox. However, the page says, "An ancient Greek institution, sponsorship represents the A to Z of Olympism and is the main source funding for the Games". Can anyone say for sure whether that is true, or has sponsorship gotten out of hand? To me, the Olympics are something holy, and this kind of corporate domineering is starting to irk the hell out of me.
  • This is simply what happens when huge amounts of money roll in via television. I would have loved to see the games in the '20s.
  • This sucks, but it's the way the Olympics are these days. They just wouldn't exist without sponsorship. I suppose you could give ticket buyers the choice between a $100 ticket that comes with food & clothing restrictions, or a restriction-free ticket for $5000. [all prices based on my imagination]
  • I've calmed down a little and been shopping for nibblies for the next 14 days. No Coke products will be consumed (by me - I can't speak for the rest of the family) for the duration.
  • I prefer the olympics as they are now as they ever were (racism, sexism, rampant undereported doping, politicized nationalistic show-offs, slave athletes, elitism).
  • Bah. Know what's the only thing I'm looking forward to come out from this olympics? All those amateur sex tapes. 'Athletes Gone Wild'. That's gonna be the only true show of the friendship spirit among all races and countries...
  • You know, Flagpole has a point.
  • Not until the videos come out, he doesn't.
  • The Olympics sold out when the atheletes were allowed to start wearing clothes.
  • My question is how many of us will contine to watch the Olympics regardless of the fact that we are outraged by the latest salvo fired in the culture wars? All I know is that I, for one, will be sitting this one out.
  • I won't be watching it, but not merely because of the sponsorship issues. Commercial interests are, I believe, symptomatic of sport as a whole, and just one of several things that makes watching sport to me unpleasurable.
  • I'll watch it. I like sports and won't deny myself the enjoyment of it just because I disapprove of the sponsorship angle. I'm not a customer of most of the major sponsors anyway (except maybe Kodak), so their marketing expenses are kinda wasted on me.
  • I'm going to watch fucking stacks of it. You can watch sport without necessarily being a moron.
  • I just always miss the stuff I want to see because it's on in the middle of the night. Definitely plan to watch any wrestling that's on as my brother is going to the 2008 Games and I want to see what a gold-medal wrestler looks like. :)
  • Staff will also be on the lookout for T-shirts, hats and bags displaying the unwelcome logos of non-sponsors. I was thinking about this last night, and obviously, the only way to make sure that no competing logos are worn by anyone, and thus getting shown on the TV screen, is for the attending masses to be naked. Sort of a reversal of the way it used to be. Would make watching the Olympics on TV almost interesting again.
  • I'll be watching the games. I fell no outrage whatsoever and I'd love to see how my dear compatriots perform.
  • I'll be watching. But I'll be thinking "fuckwads".
  • Many Ask If Olympic Sponsorship Is Worth Cost "The one thing we're not seeing is what we're used to seeing," Wolf says. "That's billboards and advertising all around us. They've just gone. They've been beamed up to Planet Olympics." What he means is this: All ads by non-sponsors in major public places have been removed or covered up. *quietly placards #3997 in #3997*