Talk about adding insult to injury. Beats Audio has already had to deal with its big love-in with HTC going fairly badly wrong – which based on most of the comments on our coverage of the subject has a lot to do with the headphones themselves being a bit... well, not brilliant, let's say.
But for a real kick in the pants, how about the British Olympic Association stepping in and forcing Beats-loving Team GB members to give up their preferred headgear in favour of products from official partner Panasonic?
Plenty of records are likely to tumble at London 2012, but long before the Olympic torch got anywhere near the nation's capital it was clear that this Games would also set new standards for corporate branding and the sheer groaning weight of “official partners” – who these days seem to require nothing but cash to grab themselves a piece of the Olympic spotlight.
And with that cash comes influence. The best example of corporate megalomania gone wrong so far from this year's Games remains the whole McDonald's chip monopoly, but this isn't far behind considering it's the actual athletes themselves being targeted.
British Olympic Association spokesperson Darryl Siebel has revealed that London 2012 officials have contacted national team leaders to emphasise “the importance of protecting our corporate partners”.
He says the rules of the Olympics prohibit competitors from promoting non-official products and brands during the Olympic Games, even in seemingly unrelated senses such as simple posts on the likes of Twitter.
That's what both Team GB footballer Jack Butland and tennis player Laura Robson have been reprimanded over, with their Beats-loving tweets having landed them in hot water with the establishment.
Technically, the rules state that infringing athletes could actually be disqualified from the Games altogether should their hatred for Panasonic run so deep that they refuse to make the switch. But we'd like to think common sense would find a way into it at some point – even if it's shown little sign of doing so thus far.
Via Pocket-lint
