Before and After

Thinking about naming your business or voluntary group or whatever after the You-Know-Whats? It’s Everybody’s GamesTM, right?

You might want to get used to LOCOG, it’s an acronym that we’ll probably be seeing more of around these parts in the coming years. It stands for The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. They’re the folks behind london2012.com, an amazingly terrifying site, the ground zero of Olympic spin and PR. Honestly, those people can take the worst ever piece-of-shit news about the games and turn it into Olympic Gold. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous you might want to download their fascinating branding guidelines – yes, the Olympics are a brand – which are hosted in a dusty corner of the site.

You’ll find out that the reason that the precious Olympic brand must be kept away from ordinary plebs like you and me is that if everybody uses it, then big corporate sponsors like Coca-Cola, Atos Origin, General Electric, McDonalds, Omega, Samsung and Visa won’t want to give the Games any money, and then we’ll be in trouble.

Meanwhile, here in Stratford, a number of local, independent businesses, not gigantic multinational corporations, but organisations owned and managed by people who work and live in and around the area where the Olympics is going to have the most impact, well, they have found themselves at the sharp end of LOCOG’s branding policies lately. Here’s a couple of pics for your pleasure.

And, well, don’t blame us if you wake up one morning to find a stiffly-worded solicitor’s letter sitting on your doorstep, or the Olympic police taping over your sign.

Charlotte