I live in East London, Leyton to be precise, approximately one mile from the 2012 Olympic Village. It is quite a busy area traffic wise, especially when the local football team Leyton Orient are at home. (Well done getting that promotion!) I imagine there is going to be considerable disruption for locals in the next 7 years.

Today I discovered a new phrase “Ambush Marketing”- it originated in the 1996 Olympics where companies who weren’t associated with the Olympics managed to get mileage out of the Olympics to help sell their products and services. This kind of upset the official sponsors and the Olympics organisers. So to head this off, LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) have got a Royal Bill which basically gives them Carte Blanche to go after anyone using the word “London Games” or various combinations. Fines of up to £20,000. This bill wasn’t without opposition. you can read LOCOG’s interpretation of the law here (Warning PDF).

However things may not be quite that bad. According to Pinsent Mason’s excellent web-site “Factual references to London and the Olympics will be legal and phrases such as ‘Come to London in 2012’ are not subject to a blanket ban, according to the Department of Culture MS.” In general terms, the Act restricts the use of the words “games”, “Two Thousand and Twelve”, “2012”, and “twenty twelve” in combination with each other or in combination with words including “gold,” “silver”, “bronze”, “London” and “summer”. These restrictions will last for six-and-a-half years.

I can understand the logic behind LOCOG but I can’t help feeling a bit uneasy about the approach. It extends into other areas. Coca Cola is an official sponsor so if you try to enter the stadium with a Pepsi Cola bottle they will make you throw it away. This type of thing happens increasingly these days. The organisers can’t have you “Dissing the Sponsors” or “doing a Britney” (having a contract with one sponsor but being seen with a rival’s product)

What LOCOG conveniently omits is that traders and local businesses who aren’t “Supporting the Olympics” but who are affected by it due to proximity, disruption etc are not allowed to gain any recompense from it. Now that seems unfair. Yes some are bound to gain extra trade but they aren’t allowed to advertise it.