Drug Dealers and Condom Makers Embrace Olympic Branding

I'm quite certain the branding committee of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic team never saw this one coming.

If you haven't yet heard, the stories burning up the VANOC media waves today include a VPD drug bust of over 100,000 ecstasy tablets ... imprinted with the Olympic rings ... and a bid by a condom company to begin producing a line of prophylactics (endorsed by America's curling team) called ... wait for it ... Hurry Hard condoms.

If you’re a little like me and have a tendency to embrace the ridiculous, you may support my high praises for the marketing savvy criminal and the branding bravado of American entrepreneurs.   Let’s be honest, Olympic rings on pills, Hurry Hard condoms … clever.  And, albeit in a strange way, big kudos for the VANOC branding team.

Canadians have clearly seen the 2010 brand everywhere.  Those darn rings are on teddy bears, fleece vests, wool mittens, necklaces, socks and tote bags.  You can spend over $100 for Olympic swag or under $10 - either way you can get it and get it, quite literally on every street corner and even … on the side!

Regardless of how you get it, I think this crazy turn of events is an interesting opportunity for branding professionals.  Marketers are keenly aware street-level guerrilla marketing is a powerful, relatively affordable way to create ownership about a brand.  Getting people talking can be a great brand booster.  And, oh are we talking.

So, to the VANOC branding committee I say ‘job well done’ - imitation, after all, is the highest form of flattery.

For the full story, check out Jeff Lee’s column in the Vancouver Sun.

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