Games for a laugh.

Like most games, the Olympics have rules.

For us marketing types, that means no company can mention the games, the city in which they are being held or the year they are being staged. (Unless they’ve forked out £10million + for the privilege.) Associated words (like ‘Gold’) are a non-starter too.

So agencies across the land have spent the past 12 months dreaming up increasingly tenuous ways to associate their clients with the event, without actually saying anything at all. Some are less successful than others. Most are just plain feeble. (The Co-Operative’s “Share the Glory” effort being a case in pointless.)

Co-operative...pointless.

But by far the best efforts are from those who set out to exploit the silliness of the whole situation and basically take the piss. Nothing in the rules against that.

Oddbins have protested against the labyrinthine regulations surrounding The Games™ by offering a 30% discount to anyone who visits one of their shops "wearing Nike trainers, with a set of Vauxhall car keys, an RBS MasterCard, an iPhone, a bill from British Gas and a receipt for a Pepsi bought at KFC".

Oddbins...self-censored.

Medals all round for the loveable rogues at Paddy Power, who have actively goaded the Brand Police by promoting their egg and spoon race in London, Burgundy.

Paddy Power...goading.

But my Metallic Medallion™ goes to W+K’s “I will live forever” TV spot for Old Spice. (Even though as a P&G brand and Top Tier sponsor they could have done the whole Olympic ring thing.)

The very embodiment of the faux-lympic spirit. 


Tim Lines