August 17, 2005

Olympic Lobbying If a proposed bill goes through, it 'will make it illegal to combine words like "games", "medals", "gold", "2012", "sponsor" or "summer" in any form of advertising.' No more "Summer Hits". No more "Gold Cards". No more bongs for heroic deeds. And the calendar will jump a year. More proof that the (say it with me) OLYMPICS has nothing to do with sport.
posted by Skrik 19 years ago
  • You should be sued just for using the words in this post. THEIF! PIRATE!
  • Arrrr!
  • Remember last Summer when everyone on the Internet linked to the Olympic Games' website, because they told everyone not to? I can see that happening again.
  • I really hope this doesn't turn into another... oh, what's the phrase...? Ah, yes. Crass spectacle.
  • Isn't just about everyone in London a sponsor of the Olympics, whether they want to be or not?
    The first £2.050 billion of the funding package will come from up to £1.5 billion from a new national lottery game and up to £550 million from London Council Tax (equating to a £20 a year, or 38p-per-week increase, on Band D council tax from April 2006). Beyond the £2.050 billion, provision has been made for a further contribution of £75 million from London Council Tax and then £250 million from the London Development Agency.
  • Does that mean every man, woman, and Child in London may legitimately use the banned phrases however and whenever they like? <Mr Burns>Excellent</Mr Burns>
  • Londoners get fucking everything. I wanna 'lympic games.
  • I knew things were getting out of hand when the IOC sued the guys behind Legend of the Five Rings. As if someone could possibly confuse the International Olympic Movement TM with a bunch of gamers sitting in the basement, all pale from lack of sunlight. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the IOC has done a lot of hard work to create its worldwide brand recognition, and deserves to have it protected. (You like that? I even kept a straight face there -- I'm getting better at this, I think.)
  • The Olympics are about near useless as far as I'm concerned. The attendant issues of expense and the general inconvenience do not warrant the hell the IOC puts cities through to try and get The Games. The sheer stupidity of brand management and sponsor identification just adds to the load. I'd be perfectly happy if the Olympics were never held in the United States again. Keep it overseas where it's easy to ignore.
  • I'll second drivingmenuts' comment... When I was a kid (WAY too long ago), there was something exciting and noble about the olympics (sorry, no big "O" for it anymore for me). Now it has become an ugly political football full of commercialism and steriods... Let it die a natural death, for the most part our globe doesn't know how to do sports in an honorable way any longer.
  • Blah. The Olympics is nearly the only time I'll watch sports. How anyone can accuse the Olympics of crass consumerism and NOT say the same thing about every team sport on ESPN I have no idea. Only the unpopular sports are not consumerist, and that's just because they can't get sponsors. Noble? It's like any other faded dream. Though I admit the Americans piss me off a little more than usual when they're on (trashing their rooms at Nagano, changing who the "world's fastest man" title goes to depending on which event was won by an American, etc, etc, etc). The drugs... the sponsorship scandals... welcome to the modern world. Hell, I bet there was more scandal in days of yore. Though, true, it is an economic curse to any city that hosts it. Better kept at convenient distance, like most things.
  • Blah. The Olympics is nearly the only time I'll watch sports. How anyone can accuse the Olympics of crass consumerism and NOT say the same thing about every team sport on ESPN I have no idea. Because Minnesota hasn't sued Norway for having vikings, nor has Oakland sued Hollywood for having pirates.
  • Googlebomb's a comin'. Yup.
  • Because Minnesota hasn't sued Norway for having vikings, nor has Oakland sued Hollywood for having pirates. Yeah right. When's the last time you saw an Ottawa Roughriders game?
  • As a denizen of the briny deep, I naturally prefer the fish olympics.
  • Yeah right. Are you trying to say Minnesota has sued Norway? If not, what are you trying to say? The Ottawa reference means nothing to me.
  • The fish olympics are awesome. As were the Hanna-Barbera Laff-A-Lympics. Heck, if I were a pub owner in London, I'd put up a HUGE sign with a bunch of interlocking multi-colored beer-bottles with a caption saying "Watch the 2011+1 Spring+1 Major Competitive Events Here! Official Pub of the 2013-1 August Competitive Events in Stratford!"
  • Could Minnesota and Norway have the same business name, Knickerb? Yes. Sports name? Yes. Could Minnesota and North Dakota? Probably no. Sports name? Probably no. Trademarks are usually national, unless a business expands into another country (witness: we have no more "Radio Shack"). The Olympics is one such business. This particular action is bullshit, but I don't think your analogy works. Oh, and we had both Ottawa Roughriders and Saskatchewan Roughriders for a time, but apparently this created instability in the sanctified world of sport.
  • I think that's the wrong google-bomb. Who googles for "crass spectacle"? On the other hand, lots of people will be searching for "the Olympic Games". (I could have sent you all to goatse, but I didn't.)
  • That's it. Quid, you are SO not a fargin' "denizen of the briny deep". You probably don't even have gills or a four-chambered stomach, and I bet you still reproduce by splitting in half like the rest of us. Stop misrepresenting!
  • Regarding the minor derail, many sports teams share the same name. For example New York Giants/San Francisco Giants...New York Rangers/Texas Rangers. So professional sports teams aren't nearly as gung-ho about protection of trade marks as the IOC. And the CFL teams were the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Ottawa Rough Riders...confusing, but different.
  • Ah, f8xy! My fishy friends and I can't hear you down here in the subaquatic realm, for we have neither ears nor sense of shame. Now please excuse me while I spray my spermatazoa over the freshly-ejected roe of my beloved (or someone's beloved, it's pretty hard to keep track down here).
  • *quidnunc exits room, gills blazing*
  • How anyone can accuse the Olympics of crass consumerism and NOT say the same thing about every team sport on ESPN I have no idea. Because no one mentioned ESPN, the NFL, the NBA, NASCAR or any of the other crass commercialistic nightmares that pass for Modern American sports these days. When I think of them and most other sports above a college level, mostly I wish they would all go to hell, alongside the Olympics.
  • I'm firmly in the Fuck the olympics camp. I haven't watched them since I was ten, and the frankly bore the crap outta me. As an aside... Did you know that in America, they Call the Olympics a "Royale with Cheese?"
  • No shit! Whaddaya they call the Paralympics?
  • Actually - lets not.
  • DO NOT BOW TO THE FORCES OF POO-POO. MORE FUNNY, PLEASE.
  • Good luck with that, quid. I fear you are quite delusional, what with your dreams and hallucinations of a mystical, watery abode wherein you and your icthy playmates cavort in sublime ignorance of your sad state. You have my pity.
  • Who googles for "crass spectacle"? But the googlebomb worked so well last time...
  • Trademarks are usually national, unless a business expands into another country (witness: we have no more "Radio Shack"). The Olympics is one such business. This particular action is bullshit, but I don't think your analogy works. Regarding the minor derail, many sports teams share the same name. For example New York Giants/San Francisco Giants...New York Rangers/Texas Rangers.So professional sports teams aren't nearly as gung-ho about protection of trade marks as the IOC. This is the point I'm trying to make. The Vikings are a business, and it is possible for me to infringe on their copyrights, trademarks, et al. I can't make a Vikings T-shirt. But I can make a vikings T-shirt. Accoring to the logic used by the IOC though, the NFL has lost all rights to the name "Viking" because there exist people who use the word not referencing the NFL's Minnesota Vikings. Trademark dilution is only applicable when it's in the same area of business. The IOC only has to worry about dilution when somebody uses the term "Olympic" within specific sporting contexts. These are the reasons that the Olympics are in a pit below the average ESPN sporting event. Celebrity Showdown Poker hasn't tried to restrict the use of the words "celebrity", "showdown", or "poker". Now I recall hearing of that roughrider bruhaha. I needed more to refresh my memory. Only 8 teams in the league, and 2 have (had) the same name.
  • Fortunately, I can still go hiking in the Olympics, per section 4c.
  • I note the metafilter thread on the same topic -- particularly ericb's post noting that these restrictions go back a long way. I agree with what you are saying about viking vs. Viking -- indeed, it appears that Seattle has experienced the butt end of that argument. If that's the case, Rocket88, it is probably because nobody talks about the "Giants" without reference to either the sport or the city giving it context. But I recall from IP that Canada and the US are very different in this area. I was never able to reconcile how counter-intuitive this whole area of law is. On its face, this appears to be an attempt to prevent people from claiming sponsorship without actually forking over any money -- but doing so in an incredibly ham-fisted (and probably rights-infringing) way.
  • Come here in the summer of 2012! It's Olympic Gold! No, I have no idea what that site's about either. Should be SFW though.
  • A year later, Athens is 'uncomfortably still' Most of the facilities built for the 2004 Summer Games remain largely unused, and Greece is still tallying the bill.
  • No shit! Whaddaya they call the Paralympics? Payper Rok Sissor Onyun! El YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!! /packs bag for stay in Hell.
  • I remember reading that no city since LA has had a net gain from hosting the Olympics. Cities like Montreal incurred large debts but very little net returns.
  • /unpacks bag Thanks for the clarification, tech... So I guess I'll have to rephrase that as "Royale with Ch..." *sigh* /repacks bag....
  • Henceforth I shall be referring to the real Olympics as the Constipatics. The 2012 Constipatic Games. Theres no rule against satire, in fact, I think its protected by law. Now I just have to sue all those companies that make products containing fiber for diluting my joke.
  • Good luck with that, quid. I fear you are quite delusional, what with your dreams and hallucinations of a mystical, watery abode wherein you and your icthy playmates cavort in sublime ignorance of your sad state. Pah! You land-based organisms are always giving us sea-dwellers shit, merely because our liquid empire extends throughout over 70% of your precious planetary globe. Face the facts, minority-boy: your "solid state" of matter is not a "state of peace". Convert, I beg you, to our aqueous and deliquescent zone - only then will you Earth-bound fools transcend the misconceptions inherent in your non-tidal domain - plus, the lobster mornay is cheaper down here.
  • What quidnunc is conveniently forgetting to mention is that sea-dwellers never get to eat cheese, not snowmobile. If you convert, you'll never have cheese again.
  • By Poseidon, by Triton, by Oceanus - I urge thee to convert! Cheese is for wimps and French-persons, ancient enemies of the wavey-kingdoms.
  • I've never self-tagged before, but in this case, I think I'm gonna do it: MonkeyFilter: Official Filter of the 2012 Olympic Games /no shame
  • Good one BH!