The Olympics

The Olympics

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News, information and stories about the Olympic Games in Athens 2004 and the Olympics in general up until 2007.

Friday, September 30, 2005

Beijing Bulldozed

The government of China is using the Olympics in 2008 as a good reason to redevelop Beijing.

Vast areas of Beijing are being bulldozed.

It is estimated that approximately 300,000 hutong residents have already been moved to clear the way for the Olympics.

The old streets of Beijing will be replaced with skyscrapers.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Logo For Beijing Olympics Unveiled

The environmental logo for the Beijing 2008 Olympics was unveiled on September 24th at the Beijing Youth Palace.

The logo is a composition of human and a tree, they are both reaching to the sky representing the harmonious unification of man and nature.

Liu Jingmin, vice mayor of Beijing and executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), said:

"To ensure Green Olympics not only needs the government support and the efforts of BOCOG, but also depends on the participation of the public. The release of the logo will help to promote the various educational activities organized by BOCOG to encourage citizens to live a green life, to take part in green activities and to support the Green Olympics."

"Green Olympics" is one of the three themes of the Beijing 2008 Games, the other two being "People's Olympics" and "Hi-Tech Olympics".

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Daft Advertising Rules Relaxed

The UK government has given in to pressure from the advertising industry, and signaled it will change its proposed controls on advertising during the 2012 Olympics.

However, as with anything promised by politicians, the devil will be in the detail.

The International Olympic Committee requires host cities to prevent "ambush marketing", namely advertisers trying to associate themselves with the Olympics without paying to be an official sponsor.

This rule is there to protect the real reason for the existence of the Olympics, the multi billion dollar consumer companies who sponsor the games.

The Department for Culture Media and Sport, as usual with Blair's government, went obverborard when it prepared legislation to comply with the IOC requirements.

Advertisers would have been banned from using the words gold, silver, bronze, London or summer in conjunction with games or 2012.

Totally daft!

Lobbying by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has persuaded the DCMS to make some changes to the legislation.

We shall see.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Green Olympics

Roots and Shoots a US environmental and humanitarian program for young people under the Jane Goodall Institute, founded in 1977 to promote wildlife research and conservation, as well as animal welfare, particularly of chimpanzees has launched a program for environmental protection in Beijing in an effort to help build "Green Beijing, Green Olympics".

"Eco Action Beijing," will invite primary school, middle school and university students in Beijing to participate in the campaign for public welfare.

"Green Beijing, My Home" is the slogan of the program, which will last until the close of the 29th Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

The goal of the program is to pick a group of top "Green Schools", that are committed to promoting environmental protection education.