Wise Buddha

I’m not a fan of the Winter Olympics being hosted by Vancouver, not because I have any real ideological objection but because I have seen first hand the incapacity of Vancouverites to deliver big thinking. It does not get much bigger than hosting an Olympic Games and you only have to see the spin surrounding the major cost increases to see that this project could go sideways quickly.

So far the organising committee have managed to keep things so secret that it has avoided any real scrutiny, this coupled with the general economic boom in the Province means that most people don’t feel badly affected by the billions of dollars being spent….yet!

In marketing terms VANCO have done a sterling job of clamping down on copyright infringement they really know how to rattle the cages of local businesses who may have been trading for years with ‘Olympic’ in their business name. Surely this only gets serious if Telus start trying to pass off or deploy ambush marketing. I can only hope that someone has the balls to do something in order to puncture the pompous, dull and typically Canadian approach to these kinds of things. Sense of humour anyone?!

In the meantime if anyone is looking for clever ways to get involved without coughing up massive licensing fees then I offer all telecommunications co’s a way to get one over on Bell. Back in the 90’s a clever little telco from New Zealand came up with this creative way for associating itself with the Olympic Games, the New Zealand Organising Committee took the company to court for copyright infringement and lost!

Please Telus, Rogers, Virgin etc. grow a pair and for once lets be a little edgy rather than continually celebrating Taxi, DDB and Rethink, local Agency’s who are lauded for their creativity. Ok they do some interesting work occasionally but the vast majority is formulaic - yes I’m talking to you Rethink who are particularly po faced and serious.