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| Hearsay: |
The corporate assholes at the Vancouver Olympics, through the spineless leadership of the Vancouver library system, have instructed city librarians to not only not use products and services by competitors of official Olympic sponsors for Olympic-themed events, but also to cover with cloth or tape any existing infrastructure with offending brand names or logos. I’d say I’m speechless but, given the headline, I think I’ve got my response down.
Librarians in Vancouver are being warned to solicit only official Olympic sponsors for any Games-themed events they organize next month, and to cover up the names of any competitors – even slapping tape on offending logos on audiovisual equipment.
The memo, written by marketing and communications manager Jean Kavanagh, tells staff to avoid such companies as Pepsi or Dairy Queen – neither of which is an official sponsor, unlike, say Coca-Cola or McDonald’s. And she suggests taking unusual steps to avoid displaying the logos of non-sponsors, writing: “If you have a speaker/guest who happens to work for Telus, ensure he/she is not wearing their Telus jacket, as Bell is the official sponsor.”
She also writes that any rented sound equipment have its brand name covered by cloth or tape – if it’s not a machine from sponsor Panasonic.
Librarians will also be called on to fellate visiting corporate brass while wearing official Vancouver 2010 push-up lingerie. It’s in the small print.
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January 14th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I’d suggest that if Panasonic wants their logo on the damn equipment, they should pony up and provide said equipment.
Seems fair to me.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
This is doubly dickish in that the libraries have faced significant cuts as of late, and though the government denies it the Olympic bill is the obvious cause of this. The last time I checked, neither VANOC nor the IOC were the funders of the library, or the owners, or in any way a stakeholder in the VPL system. I understand the issue of these companies having paid to be official Olympic sponsors, but the VPL isn’t an Olympic venue, and the library belongs to the citizens of Vancouver and is not for sale.
I would respectfully suggest to the VPL that they should refrain from holding any Olympic themed events at all. Or, even better, how about showcasing some of the finer moments in modern Olympic history. Like their acceptance of a 20,000,000 RM donation from and subsequent enthusiastic collaboration with Adolph Hitler in 1936. The dripping irony in Hitler’s statement about the merits of the games (”The sportive, knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn’t separate, but unites the combatants in understanding and respect. It also helps to connect the countries in the spirit of peace. That’s why the Olympic Flame should never die.”) is very much alive today. It would be an interesting event, and I’m sure Coke and McDonalds would be very pleased to have their logos all over the place.
I’m probably on a watch list now. You too, George.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Meh. That’s nothing. Scotiabank is on the shit list for their current commercial campaign. And somewhere along the way I heard that anything with the words TELUS need to be covered up as well since Bell is the official sponsor.