We are a nation of larrikans, we champion the underdog, & we hate
red tape & over-officious officials.

I for one will have a Pepsi t-shirt, a Burger King cap & Apple
Computer socks when I go to the stadium next Wednesday - in my backpack until I get in there. I will then put them on & try to get in front of a camera. I have 10 friends who will be doing the
same. Why? Just to get up their noses, & because if an Olympic
Spirit ever really existed, this is not a part of it.

Loving & being loved is perhaps the most important part of having
a full, happy life --- most people, one on one, will agree with
that statement. Then WHY, as a group, do we place so much value
on material possesions & celebrity status?

Because they can be controlled, manipulated, bought & sold. They have our bodies, dont let them take our souls.

Hail Rex Mundi, f**k the new world order & illegitimus non carborundum.

Sangraal

: PEPSI AND WEAPONS MUST BE LEFT AT GATE!

: From RMNews: If you have been following the RMNews Cola Wars,
: you are aware that we have been saying that Pepsi belongs
: to Faction 2 and Coke is Faction One. At this year's
: Australian Olympics, Coke out bid Pepsi and became the
: official sponsor.

: (It would be interesting to see if any illegal back room deals
: were cut with the scandal ridden Olympic committe to give
: Coke the higher edge.)

: Evidently Coke has ordered Pepsi banned from the Olympics.
: Look at the way that the following article has worded this
: "Pepsi Ban" It appears as if they are putting
: Pepsi in the same class as WEAPONS.

: The next article is the THE REVENGE OF PEPSI. Pepse struck
: back at Coke in Spain. At the moment Spainish authorities,
: acting on a complaint by Pepsi, are investigating Coke's
: illegal competive procedures.
: ###

: From Reuters article Sept. 18 Sydney 2000 Olympics

: "Coca-Cola is an official sponsor and security staff at
: Olympic venues are asking spectators carrying cans of Pepsi
: to leave them at the gate -- along with anything that could
: be construed as a weapon. It's that or no entry."

: Hear that maties? Check you guns and Pepsi at the door!

: http://news.excite.com/news/r/000918/23/sport-olympics

: Olympics-Pepsi a banned substance at Olympic Games

: Updated 11:42 PM ET September 18, 2000
: By Paul Holmes
: SYDNEY, Sept 18 (Reuters) - It's either the Pepsi or the pole
: vault.

: You can't have both at the Olympic Games in Sydney.

: Coca-Cola is an official sponsor and security staff at Olympic
: venues are asking spectators carrying cans of Pepsi to
: leave them at the gate -- along with anything that could be
: construed as a weapon. It's that or no entry.

: "Non-Games sponsor products are not allowed -- that's why
: sponsors pay huge amounts of money," a spokesman for
: organising committee SOCOG said.

: An elite band of corporate sponsors have paid close to $1
: billion to the International Olympic Committee and to SOCOG
: to associate their brands and products with the greatest
: show on earth and will go to great lengths to guard that
: precious right.

: So when a lower-tier Australian food supplier last week was
: spotted selling a bacon and egg roll known as a
: "damper," it was forced to remove it from the
: menu.

: The offending roll was deemed a little too similar to the Egg
: McMuffin sold by McDonald's, one of the 11 worldwide
: Olympic sponsors which together have forked out a whopping
: $550 million to the IOC for global marketing rights for the
: period 1997-2000.

: SOCOG has hauled in a further A$750 million ($410 million)
: from 13 Australian corporate sponsors for the Sydney Games
: and dozens of official supporters and providers supplying
: everything from beer and biscuits to metal detectors and
: sunscreen.

: "The target (for sponsorship revenue) has been met on two
: occasions and raised a third time," said Sharon
: Hobson, a spokeswoman for SOCOG's marketing arm.

: "There's no other opportunity like it in Australia."

: BRAND RECOGNITION

: For the sponsors, the spin-off of being part of the Olympics,
: with their sporting ideals of excellence and achievement,
: and the right to use the famous Olympic five rings and
: other symbols in their advertising is enormous.

: Market research has shown those rings have 93 percent
: recognition, and that means a big boost to brand
: recognition for the companies that can associate them with
: their products and services.

: "The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games are an unmatched marketing
: platform, unparalleled in the world," said a spokesman
: for computer giant IBM, one of the IOC's global sponsors
: and the supplier of information technology systems to
: SOCOG.

: "That's why you do it."

: He said IBM research conducted after the Nagano Winter Games
: in 1998 showed increases ranging from 11 percent to 40
: percent in awareness of the company and the attributes it
: seeks to promote.

: IBM has been a global sponsor since 1993, when the IOC
: introduced its so-called TOP programme of worldwide
: corporate backers. These will be its final Games.

: "It was a business decision, pure and simple," the
: spokesman said. "We concluded that the investment
: simply could not be justified by the available business
: return."

: Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, says it has forecast a
: threefold return on a $200 million investment in
: sponsorship fees, marketing and advertising linked to the
: Olympics.

: It expects its brand recognition in the mobile telephony
: market to increase four to six percent as a result of the
: Games, said Jay Kim, a spokesman for the South Korean-based
: company.

: Not that Samsung can do whatever it likes.

: Samsung has sponsor status only in the wireless communications
: category, so the televisions it has supplied at Olympic
: press centres have black tape stuck over their logos.

: "Panasonic are the worldwide sponsors for audio and video
: equipment...We don't want to go into their category,"
: Kim said.

: THE "O-WORD"

: So fierce is the guardianship of Olympic marketing rights that
: SOCOG lobbied for a law known as the "Olympic
: Arrangements Act" that gives Australian authorities
: powers to levy stiff fines on non-sponsor companies that
: try to "ambush" the Games.

: But there are still ways to capitalise on the Olympics without
: creating an association with the Games or using the
: "O-word."

: The Australian airline Qantas, which has no official link to
: the Games, ran a huge advertising campaign in the build-up
: to the Olympics using some of Australia's best known
: sporting stars.

: It also got massive exposure in the United States with a film
: showcasing Australia that U.S. broadcasting rights holder
: NBC used to open its Olympics television coverage last
: week.

: Ansett Australia, the official Olympic airline for the Sydney
: Games, settled out of court with Qantas in two cases of
: alleged ambush marketing that Ansett's lawyers pursued.

: An Ansett spokesman, Michael Rolnick, said the company was not
: too concerned by Qantas's success. He said Ansett was using
: its Olympic involvement to target the corporate account
: market and did not fly to the United States anyway.

: "We're projecting a return of at least four to five times
: our investment," Rolnick said. "I don't think
: you'll find anyone in Ansett who is displeased with
: that." ^ REUTERS@