Olympic brand enforcers out in full force at Olympic Games

MARIA SAEED

KARACHI: The London 2012 Olympic Games commence a week from now and as the athletes compete to see who can be the fastest, highest and strongest, many corporations are trying to ensure they'll be the ‘richest.’ In the shadow of gleaming Olympic venues, a quiet battle is underway over who gets to cash in at the Games.

Companies are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to sponsor the games, and they want to ensure they get some bang for their buck. So the Olympic Delivery Authority has deployed 280 Olympic brand enforcers onto the streets of London.

The London Organizing Committee (LOCOG) has a second team of zealots doing similar work on behalf of corporate brands.

Among the offences these sleuths are ferreting out under the Olympic Games Act (2006) are putting two of the words "games" "2012" "Twenty Twelve," "gold," "bronze" or "medal" in the same sentence.

Offenders could be on the hook for fines of more than $30,000.

Lord Coe, who oversees the London Games, declared on BBC Radio that if any spectator wears a T-shirt with the word Pepsi emblazoned on it the offender would be banished from the venue so as to not hurt the feelings of Coca-Cola, which has paid $957 million to be the Olympics’ official drink.

Adidas is another big sponsor, but Coe told the BBC that visitors wearing Nike sneakers would “probably” be allowed in.

The London Organizing Committee insists that's not true.

It says "any individual coming into our venues can wear any item of clothing, branded or otherwise".

Local organizers have raised about 700 million pounds ($1.10 billion) from an additional 41 sponsors for the London Games.

Despite reservations from some of the locals, others were more optimistic, saying the Games will help regenerate some of London's most rundown areas - an ethnic melting pot plagued by gang crime where memories of last year's wave of unrest are still fresh.

"We have to distinguish between the concepts of the Olympic Games the sporting event and the corporate circus. It certainly put Stratford on the map," said Dennis Fisher, who runs a stall selling T-shirts and represents stall owners in Stratford.

"We are in such close proximity to the stadium that we can't associate the Olympic brand. And I can understand that."