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Cannot Have A Non-IBM PC At The Olympics

from the stupidity dept

Mon, Sep 18th 2000 3:12pm — Mike Masnick

According to this article at the Register, some of the companies sponsoring the Olympics have actually paid to remove all competing brands from the games altogether. This includes Coca-Cola, so you can't enter anywhere if you happen to have a Pepsi. It also apparently includes IBM. So, if you have a non-IBM laptop, the logo needs to be covered up by black tape. I noticed in a short snippet of the Olympics that I caught last night that there was a fight over one of the Australian gymnist's choice of songs. It was apparently a song used in a commercial by a competing airline of the airline that had sponsored the Olympics. The sponsor wanted to force the girl to change her routine. Yes, this is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

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4 Comments

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mhh5, 18 Sep 2000 @ 8:17pm

Ack!
What about bright colored iBooks?!? Pretty hard to tape over that... I guess you could cover the entire thing....
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ellis, 19 Sep 2000 @ 8:44am

Arrggg
It's all about the $ - not the sport anymore..
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Mike (profile), 19 Sep 2000 @ 12:17pm

Re: Arrggg
Yesterday I caught a snippet of an interview on television, though I don't know with who or really what the subject matter was, but they were saying something about how we're in the age of "late high capitalism" where everything has been reduced to its price. For example, "how good is that painting?" "Well, it sold for..." and so on.

I thought that was a pretty interesting concept, though I don't necessarily believe it's entirely true, or that it really matters that much.
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|333173|3|_||3, 8 Feb 2007 @ 4:34pm

Flood the gates
if everyone who wanted to go but couldn't get tickets rocked up in competing brands logos, then the gate guards would be so busy turning people away for wearing the wrong clothes, either most of the legitimate spectators would be unable to get in, the events would have to start late, or they would have to stop checking for tickets. Whatever happens, this would allow those who protest against everything, those who missed out on tickets in the lottery system, and even those who feel that for &pound 4 is worth it for a day's mayhem and amusement (ther's always some).

another way for someone to have fun would be to wear a coat and sweatshirt over an offending t-shirt to an event, then take it off after the event and wander in front of a camera and get filmed being thrown out, after telling the cameraman that you know they are about to throw you out. THat ought to get some publicity for the stupid rule.
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