I was reading the ridiculous VANcouver Olympic Committee logo use guidelines. For media they supposedly have different requirements for use of the Olympic logo. I asked what they were because the webpage said to email for further details if you were media:
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From: Saskboy [mailto:saskboy hotmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 12:53 PM
To: Media Relations
Subject: guidelines
Hi,
What are VANOC’s guidelines for media use of the Olympic logo in coverage of the games?
Thank you,
Saskboy
www.abandonedstuff.com
There response was both baffling in its presumption I was going to request to use their stupid emblem, and the severity with which they “protect” the Olympic spirit.
Thank you for your interest in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Unfortunately, we cannot permit your request to use the Vancouver 2010 emblem.
All uses of the Vancouver 2010 logo and wordmarks are strictly controlled. It is the responsibility of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) to diligently protect the Olympic Brand that will be used in association with the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
For the benefit of all Canadians, VANOC must ensure that the value of the Olympic Brand is maintained as part of its efforts to stage well-organized and financially successful Games. To preserve the value of the Olympic Brand, VANOC is obligated to ensure that it is used only by official sponsors and licensees who have acquired those rights. Under its commitment to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), VANOC cannot permit other parties to use the Olympic Brand or otherwise suggest an affiliation or connection with, or the sponsorship or approval of, VANOC, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the 2010 Winter Games, or the Olympic Movement in Canada.
For more information about the rules and regulations governing the use of the Olympic Brand, please visit our website at www.vancouver2010.com/en/LookVancouver2010/ProtectingBrand.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Vancouver 2010 Info
Want to get the latest information on the 2010 Winter Games? Join one of our mailing lists. Sign up now at www.vancouver2010.com.
bc
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In other words, “DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, LOOOSURRR!”
Maybe they were afraid I was going to do this, like Havril did.
Mmmm, useless stuff. Soon it will become abandoned at junk yards and garage sales around the country.
I think as bloggers, we have a duty to mock the corporate branding mentality of the VANOC committee. Any ideas on the best ways to do this? Perhaps it would be a good idea if a lot more people linked to Havril’s mascot page?
When the 2012 Olympics roll around, it would be nice if copyright, and trademark law were modified enough in the right direction to allow bloggers to write about the games without worry of lawsuits. Perhaps the Olympics should have lawyer downhill bowling competitions? Maybe athletes will stand up to the Olympic committee and blog about the games with impunity.
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Hat tip to Creekside1.
@hotmail.com
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.efc.ca/images/efcfreet.gif)
Wandering Coyote | 02-Mar-08 at 7:40 pm | Permalink
Good God!
“For the benefit of all Canadians…” How patronizing is that??
Raphael Alexander | 02-Mar-08 at 8:18 pm | Permalink
The Olympic Games are an unscrupulous waste of taxpayer money and natural resources. I would actually call it the single most inefficient thing a country could partake in. It exemplifies our resource-driven excess-ridden society and our despicable penchant to obsess about unimportances.
As far as I am concerned, my taxpayers subsidized those logos, and if I want to take a picture of that logo and use it as a base for my birdcage, I feel well within my rights to do so.
Wandering Coyote | 02-Mar-08 at 8:21 pm | Permalink
Well said, Raphael.
Miss Cellania | 02-Mar-08 at 8:38 pm | Permalink
Methinks it never occurred to them that anyone would request the policy as worthy information in itself. So the only printed policy they have is a rejection letter!
Saskboy | 02-Mar-08 at 10:51 pm | Permalink
Right on Miss C, which gives their letter levels of absurdity and hilarity beyond what I had expected it to contain when I requested more details.
And yes, the VANOC seems to be extremely patronizing if that’s their opening salvo of communication. I’m not usually one for boycotts, but perhaps turning that idea sideways would work. I’m thinking that we [bloggers] ought to write about the Olympics, both the games and the impacts of the games [positive and negative] and if anyone is threatened by VANOC or the IOC, the “offending” content be replaced with the threat, and a list of the companies that enabled the threat of legal action.
Candace | 03-Mar-08 at 1:17 am | Permalink
What a crock. Someone needs to come up with a new logo (squares instead of circles maybe?) and we should all blog about the damn games to our hearts’ content (or lack thereof, as the case may be).
Saskboy | 03-Mar-08 at 1:19 am | Permalink
The Ohlimpics, perhaps?
Fred | 03-Mar-08 at 12:48 pm | Permalink
As I look at my window and watch the Olympic Athlete’s village being built, I can only smile knowing deadbeats like you guys won’t bother to attend our fabulous games and spoil our wonderful invitation to the world to celebrate universal peace through sports.
And if you think about changing your mind and attending, please don’t.
We want to enjoy the event.
Saskboy | 03-Mar-08 at 12:58 pm | Permalink
“knowing deadbeats like you guys ”
There’s not much more priceless than someone advocating for corporate welfare on credit, and in the same breath calling other people deadbeats.
EDIT: And I want to enjoy the events too. I just want to enjoy them with a clean conscience.
Wandering Coyote | 03-Mar-08 at 12:59 pm | Permalink
Fred: It says a lot that when you look out your window over that lovely athlete’s village that you don’t see the money not being spent on affordable housing for the many people in Vancouver who really need it.
Raphael Alexander | 03-Mar-08 at 3:44 pm | Permalink
Fred, here’s the thing. Vancouver will clutch it’s nutsack for two or three weeks, feel mighty and important, throw a gigantic party, and show the world how lovely it is. And then after the party, the cleanup begins with the paying off of debts. And at the end of it all the city is no less scummy, dirty, and filled with homeless people collecting bottles, and taking crack in the downtown eastside. But instead of investing in a billion dollar program to fight homelessness and chronic addiction in Canada, we sank it into a 2 week party. Now you paint people with a pretty broad stroke there, which is silly because we’re all taxpayers and we helped fund this monstrous waste of money.
I can tell you don’t actually live in Vancouver, since if you did, you’d feel ashamed your city thought that rising crime rates, Asian gangs, homelessness, addiction, and a skyrocketing cost of living are all inferior priorities to ensuring we all do the international dong measurement with our fellow humans. Look, China has a bigger dong than we do. But Czech Republic has a smaller one. Isn’t that great!? Such a special thing.
Fred | 03-Mar-08 at 4:12 pm | Permalink
“I can tell you don’t actually live in Vancouver, ”
Care to make a bet on that ??
Say $100k ??
Put up or apologize for calling me a liar, because that’s what you did.
This is my neck of the woods
http://www.hejl.com/media/live/
. . . that is the Cambie Street Bridge and beyond it on the right is the Olympic Village - you can just make out the cranes.
Raphael Alexander | 03-Mar-08 at 4:29 pm | Permalink
Hope you like crime and poverty, Fred. More is coming your way under Sam Sullivan’s watch.
Saskboy | 03-Mar-08 at 4:34 pm | Permalink
Raphael, there’s really no need to claim Fred doesn’t live in Vancouver to get your point across.
Raphael Alexander | 03-Mar-08 at 4:37 pm | Permalink
saskboy, fair enough, but the comment was an expression. You know, like… you must not live in Toronto if you haven’t noticed the snow… etc etc.
Anyway. Moving on.
Fred | 03-Mar-08 at 4:52 pm | Permalink
So, standing fast on the net as a liar. Good move. It is your reputation you shred.
Your knowledge of Vancouver is pitiful . . . watching too much CBC perhaps.
The city is booming, real estate is sky high with demand increasing and the Olympics is a $billion dollar Advertising for tourism and the transnational wealthy to buy into Vancouver, which they are already doing.
Judging Vancouver on the Downtown East Side is like judging Ontario on the Caledonia criminals or all of Toronto on the Jane & Finch gang-bangers.
Brampton . . is that a suburb of Scarborough or maybe Etobicoke ??
Wandering Coyote | 03-Mar-08 at 5:07 pm | Permalink
Fred:
Look, I live in BC, visit Vancouver regularly, and have lived there recently. You don’t need to go to the Downtown East Side to see the rampant poverty and homelessness, though that is where it’s the worst. You see it everywhere in Vancouver.
And likening the Downtown East Side to a suburb like Scarborough isn’t accurate and you know it. It’s more equivalent to say Port Moody or Coquitlam. The Downtown East Side is just that: DOWNTOWN.
Yes, BC is booming, but we haven’t the resources to support it. We’re already bringing in workers from the Dominican Republic to build that ridiculous RAV line. And with skyrocketing housing prices, the painfully obvious gap between the rich and poor is only going to get much, much worse.
If we can afford to put billions into the already grossly overbudget Olympics - and I agree with Raphael’s assessment that it is a dick contest - we can afford do the things that would make Vancouver and BC a truly great place for everyone to live.
Wandering Coyote | 03-Mar-08 at 8:21 pm | Permalink
Saskboy: Just wondering…the date for this entry says March 6…I know I had a nap today but I didn’t think it was that long! ;)
Saskboy | 03-Mar-08 at 10:53 pm | Permalink
WC, I fixed the date. Wordpress has a bug (or unexpected feature) where I had this post as a draft, and it published itself automatically days early. I wasn’t going to bring this up until Cadscam got rolling a bit longer.
ottawonk | 04-Mar-08 at 5:56 pm | Permalink
dear mr. saskboy,
thank you for interest in ottawonk. upon review, it appears that your internet posting is in violation of article 137.1(3)(a)(iv) of the ottawonk linking policy (linking to ottawonk using “snarky” tone, and/or failure to purchase ottawonk merchandise while linking to ottawonk). please rectify this situation immediately. your continued failure to comply with said policy will result in pestilence and death.
sincerely,
ottawonk linking policy compliance dept.
Saskboy | 04-Mar-08 at 6:05 pm | Permalink
Dear Ottawonk Useless Crap Store and Emporium,
I’ve rigged my link to explode should you not withdraw your situation immediately. Failure to comply will result in the loss of your Internet Tubes, which are not a truck, but are just as expensive to replace.
Conducting myself accordingly,
Saskboy
ottawonk | 04-Mar-08 at 9:55 pm | Permalink
listen, we don’t want to use the words “devastatingly defamatory” but we totally will …
Saskboy | 05-Mar-08 at 12:30 am | Permalink
I’ve already got a crazy troll who posts defamatory websites about me and others, and lives in Regina (of course) to worry about. I can take on the Olympics, and your merchandise department too ]:-[
If you throw lawyers at me, I’ll feed them to my Knock Off Olympic Mascot Bear :-D
Wandering Coyote | 05-Mar-08 at 3:34 pm | Permalink
Did you see this?
Saskboy | 05-Mar-08 at 10:53 pm | Permalink
Not yet, thanks for showing me. I can’t help but guess that their effort to curb cheap Chinese knockoffs of Inuit art are doomed to failure.
Dennis | 27-Sep-08 at 6:38 am | Permalink
Hey I just got my rejection letter and it is exactly the same as saskboy’s,word for word. I agree with miss cellania (#4) that they only took the time for rejection notices. Welcome to BC. Unless you live in Vancouver or have select ” friends ” you get nothing. I’ve lived here 35 yrs. so I do have a clue.
Saskboy | 30-Sep-08 at 11:22 pm | Permalink
Thanks for the update Dennis. Please let me know if there are further responses if you press them.