Well the Beijing Olympics 2008 is now over, and amazingly Britland managed to come fourth – following China, USA and Russia. Congratulations ‘Team GB’ – but please don’t take this as a reason to stick with that ridiculous, over branded name. What is it in the British mentality that can’t take pride in things that have been the same for a long time? We just have to re-brand and re-invent it all the time, normally to the embarrassment and frustration of most people. I think it’s something to do with the fact that, as British people, we don’t fully embrace the re-branding process but just pay lip service to it. Brand is something that has to represent your character fully, it isn’t just a flashy new logo (however jaggy and unreadable it is) or a nice tagline, everyone has to buy into the brand.
So with all this heroic expenditure on new Olympic logos for London 2012, and the general excitement/lack of government support for the Olympic re-generation in east London how come no-one spent a few minutes telling London Mayor Boris Johnson how to act at an international event? On stage we have three men in suits – the Mayor of Beijing, the head of the Olympic committee and Boris Johnson. Two of those man manage to stand still, with suits smartly closed – one of those men is moving back and forward on his feet, suit open showing an expanse of shirt clad belly, occaisionally waving into the crowd. Guess which one? Then there was the flag ‘waving’. To be fair though, it is a big flag. My only question is this – did no-one think, amidst all these millions of pounds of expenditure, that teaching Boris how to act would be helpful in representing our country? Or did the extra money go to really nice stickers on the London bus that was our main contribution to the handover ceremony? I would link to the video on BBC, but for some reason it’s hard to find now…
Of course if all this Olympics-ness raises a feeling of ‘nuh’ in your soul, then check out the Hipster Olympics instead. Whuh?
