Posts Tagged ‘olympics’

Tottenham Hotspur have pulled off a nifty coup for the New Year, bringing David Beckham in to train after a few weeks of speculation and “will he/won’t he?” in the tabloids. Regarding Beckham actually playing for the team, nothing is certain still, but that is hardly the point.

The point is that this is a perfect way for Beckham to maintain his British profile prior to LA Galaxy’s season start in March, it’s not a bad way for Beckham to get fit for that purpose too and, if he does sign, Spurs will be able to turn quite some coin on the back of the fans who will want Beckham shirts. Read the rest of this entry »

And so the day has come! Prince William is to marry Kate Middleton. Be of good cheer, Britain, there’s new blood being drafted into the old firm!

It really is fabulous news, in such tough economic times, that the cuts will not affect everything. In 2011 there will be something for the whole nation to celebrate, especially the merchandise sellers, caterers and makers of bunting. It’s really an early Christmas present for them all.

And better still, it’ll take place 30 years after Charles and Diana’s wedding. We will have a new Princess of Hearts – and the same sort of economic straits then as now. Perhaps we’ll get anniversary riots in Brixton and Toxteth too, only to have the wedding calm them down.

Read the rest of this entry »

Looking carefully at the one-eyed Manga nightmares that are the 2012 Olympic mascots, I have been wondering at the designers’ thinking – and not as negatively as you might suspect. I think there may be a classicist at work behind these Cyclopses.

According to Hesiod, the Cyclopses were strong, stubborn giants who were “abrupt of emotion” – they were also synonyms for brute strength and power, and their name was invoked in connection with massive masonry.

I wonder if these mighty mythological monsters are what inspired the designers to create the Olympic Terrortubbies? Are they meant to symbolise mighty marketing? Or does the fact that, if you stand them facing one another, they look like the 2012 logo have anything to do with it? Read the rest of this entry »

Another piece, by me, on the Tiger Woods brand disintegration has appeared in Guardian Online’s Media section. It looks at the way that sports endorsement has been shifting away from volatile and risky sports stars, and at where the big money is settling in the aftermath of the Tiger Woods PR meltdown.

“Let’s get one thing straight: Tiger’s situation is no ordinary brand collapse. This is the high watermark for individual brand disintegration. It’s not of massive media interest just because of the girls; the attendant hoo-ha surrounding Tiger’s spectacular brand disintegration has been heightened to such an extraordinary degree because of the high level of brand protection surrounding A-list celebrities and sporting giants.”

To read the full article, click here.

“So, what now for this latest dopey Olympian?” asked a headline in today’s Daily Mail, referring to American swimmer Michael Phelps’ bong-sucking faux pas. Phelps, who holds the record for the most gold medals won at a single Olympics (eight in Beijing) and the most ever golds won by an Olympian (fourteen), was photographed nursing a bong while out partying. He was not suspended over the issue as marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug, but his PR machine tried their utmost to stop the story going public.

When you’ve been covered in Olympic glory and deified as a sporting god, your life as you know it stops. You enjoy the attention of sponsors and dignitaries and your brand stands for something. The hours of practice and dedication to your sport are vindicated and even the bullying you’ve received for not quite fitting in pales into insignificance because you are become a ‘special one’. You reap the fruits of the harvest. But you are no longer just a bloke on the street who can go about your daily life like almost everyone else can. Sooner or later your ‘behaviour’ becomes a point of media interest.

So Michael Phelps’ partying and bong-sucking is not just media intrusion, it’s actual news and a severe attack on the Olympian brand he has swum into. A person in Phelps’ position can’t expect their PR minders to be able to do deals on their behalf for every indiscretion; they are now headline news and something like this is always likely to slip through into the public arena. The lesson to be learned here is that, if you want to plunder your brand, you have to consider either living a rigorously monastic life or, in an attempt at normality, consider exploiting a bad boy image.

The pressures of success are often greater than the bitter taste of fame in the sporting arena; the monastic life is unlikely to suit Phelps, but the bad boy image is thoroughly unlikely to further his ability to take advantage of his Olympian fame. He’s drowning, whichever lane he chooses to swim in.