Olympic Special

“The Olympic and Paralympic brands are incredibly powerful. They evoke the emotion, excitement and values of the Games.” This is the bold claim by London 2012 and of course the famous Olympic rings are a key part of the brand and can now be seen throughout the capital. However, please be careful if you want to use them…

Designed in 1912 and adopted in 1914 the symbol of five interlocking rings, coloured blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white field, symbolises the equality and linking of the five continents: North and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia. The iconic symbol is heavily protected yet according to London 2012 “planting the rings in your own private garden (or a school or scout hut garden etc) is fine” but beware if you are a business  - the brand police will be after you.

So while the Olympic rings have become an iconic symbol of athletic excellence, controlled obsessively by London 2012, I wondered if alternative “five rings” exist and have any significance beyond the Olympics.

After extensive research, I sourced 10 excellent (in my opinion) examples of how five rings have been used in everyday life without breaking any records and London 2012 branding control:

1. Great Service in 5 Rings: Bespoke telecommunication solutions backed up by high quality service and support. They analyse your requirements, assess your options and streamline your telecoms to increase efficiency.
2. 5 Rings (The Games We Play):The debut release from Noavoa, which is timed to coincide with the Olympics
3. 5 Rings productions: An innovative and fresh approach to wedding filming. They can create a wedding film on par with the latest music videos and cinema movies and have the specialist equipment, film-making skills and drive to make this into reality.
4. Roustabout tents: You can purchase the 5 rings interlinking 12m diameter tents, which will give you a standing capacity of 1,020.
5. Teether Twister (5 rings): Something to play with or something to chew on? The Twister is equally suited for both and enables babies to quickly forget their teething troubles.
6. Flite Rings: Five rings that provide excellent flight when thrown. Available in Pentagon, Toroid, Diamond, Trapezoid and Crescent by AG shapes.
7. The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi: A 17th century treatise on the wandering samurai’s principles of swordplay and spirituality that is still widely read today.
8. Five gold rings: Well known line from the Twelve Days of Christmas carol, which makes reference to the first five books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which gives the history of man’s fall from grace. So it’s not all about excellence!
9. Five Rings Aikido: Founded to promote the Japanese martial art of Aikido.  The practice is designed to promote skill in practical self-defense and develop strength of mind and body.
10. Legend of the Five Rings Meetup Groups: Meet with other local Legend of the Five Rings enthusiasts. Gather to play and share your card collections!

So while London 2012 advises that “businesses should not use the Protected Marks”, I think I have managed to demonstrate that it will be difficult to control the use of the alternative “five rings”. However, they don’t object to people getting into the spirit by planting in red, white and blue, gold, or our brand colours like magenta pink!

More recently London mayor Boris Johnson slammed the “Olympic Rings Brand Army” and has said: “If you want to stick five doughnuts in your window and call them Olympic rings then be my guest. Or if bakers want to make a gigantic Olympic pretzel in the high streets of London to advertise their wares then let them do so.” Now that’s what I call Olympic spirit – Go Team GB.