BigShinyThing

So that’s what £400k spent on Wolff Olins’s endless meetings and stale Pret sarnies bought us. Good to see that some of the money ‘freed-up’ by the arts funding cuts we mentioned earlier has been spent so wisely.

But, enough enough already with the sarcasm. More constructive critics might argue that the desire for “reaching out and engaging young people” (presumably that’s a reference to the ‘funky’ shapes and colours, a la Thompson Twins 7-inch sleeves circa 1982) could have been more usefully satisfied by — for example — actually reaching out and engaging with them. London has a unique street-art culture, and that 400k could surely have funded some ongoing recognition of and support for the nascent design talent on the streets of East London — which might have generated some real interest in the design aspects of the Olympics amongst young people. And just maybe, a better logo. A sadly missed opportunity.

(BST’s editor points out that it does look just a teeny bit new rave. Maybe. If you squint. Hard. After downing a litre of ‘vodka’ at a mid-week Dalston lock-in.)

Anyways. You know you’re experiencing a post-’that kidney show hoax‘ sign-o-the-times moment when the BBC News blog speculates that the whole thing might be a set-up to get publicity, after which the plan is to replace the controversial identity with one ‘made by the people for the people’.

We believe they really do think that their design rocks. The suspicious absence of ‘approved’ comments on the official london2012 blog posting also suggests that they don’t want anyone cluttering up their special happy place with naysaying negativity. Maybe they need ‘blogging’ explained to them, as well as ‘design’.

As of Sunday April 1st, the Arts Council’s Grants for the Arts scheme will suffer a whopping 35% cut. This means that during the funding year 2007/2008, only £54m will be awarded, down from £83m in the current financial year. If, like us, you were always the last to picked for the team at school or if you simply believe that the arts matter then Get Involved: you can join the Arts Council debate. Also, read The Guardian’s blog on the matter — today’s post is by Peter Hewitt, Chief Executive of the Arts Council. Go on. Add a comment.

And go to this:

OPEN SPACE EVENT TO ADDRESS FUNDING CUTS:
11TH APRIL, 7PM, SHUNT VAULTS, LONDON BRIDGE

This meeting is free of charge. To reserve a space please email: hannah@shunt.co.uk.

The International Olympic Committe (IOC) is fiercely defensive of its intellectual property (IP) rights. Woe betide anyone at Athens 2004 who was caught on their way to the stands wearing non-sponsor-branded clothing or drinking the wrong soft drinks.

With the help of the UK government’s Olympics Bill, drawn up by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to establish the legal framework for London to stage the Games, the IOC is tightening the screws even further ahead of London 2012. The BBC reports that, in the interest of protecting the Olympic brand from other brand-owners ‘cashing in’ on the event, the new bill will make it illegal to combine words like games, medals, gold, 2012, sponsor or summer in any form of advertising. The IPA is not amused, and argues that fines of up to £20,000 for breaches of the Bill will rule out any sort of 2012 ‘halo effect’ for businesses in the UK. According to IPA legal director Marina Palomba, as quoted in the BBC report:

Blatant ambush marketing has to be prevented but there are already laws in existence to prevent that.

This is new legislation which gives the event holder unparallelled power. Why should the IOC have the monopoly on the terms London, 2012, summer, gold, silver and bronze?

London businesses in particular will be paying for these Games but they are being deprived of benefiting from them because they will basically have to pretend they are not happening.

At this point, the Government has come down firmly on the side of the IOC. Will the IPA manage a last lap sprint and get restrictions softened? Keep track of the Bill via our favourite source of Parliamentary intelligence, TheyWorkForYou.com.