Lloyds TSB Marketing Director, Nigel Gilbert, has been defending Lloyds decision to spend an estimated £50M to £80M on sponsoring the London 2012 Olympics.
The critics note that the 2012 Olympics is a "clean" event, whereby there will be no corporate branding at any of the venues.
Gilbert is adamant:
"Make no mistake: we will make money out of this."
He also noted that Lloyds wanted others to profit as well, and then rather over exuberantly stated that Lloyds sees its sponsorship as its duty to the nation.
LOCOG (the organisers of the games) commercial director, Chris Townsend, last week had to deny suggestions that the Olympics could become a marketing disaster on the scale of the Millennium Dome.
However, the auguries do not look good.
