Olympics 2012 | Olympics bill comes under attack
news.bbc.co.uk: "Olympics bill comes under attack""The Olympics Bill sets out strict rules to combat use of Games-related words and images by non-official advertisers.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising says that will prevent most companies benefiting at all from 2012....
"The London 2012 website has already posted a warning listing a string of Olympic-related words and images that are off limits to all but official sponsors. And advertisers' representatives have criticised the new Olympics bill because they believe it will make it almost impossible for most companies to even acknowledge that the Games are happening without getting into trouble.
the new bill will make it illegal to combine words like "games", "medals", "gold", "2012", "sponsor" or "summer" in any form of advertising.
Breaches can be punished by fines of up to £20,000, or unlimited fines in more serious cases.
The IPA argues that this will rule out any sort of 2012 "halo effect" for businesses in the UK.
"You won't even be able to say 'come to London in 2012' because it will infringe the act," said Palomba.
And a DCMS spokesman said speculation on what the new rules would and would not allow was "premature", with businesses to be given two years' notice before the laws were brought in.
He added: "The idea is to protect the Olympic brand and ensure that we meet the criteria of the IOC.
"We will do that, and we won't go any further than we need to go, or any less far than we need to go." "
posted by Jen @ 6:21 am
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