Thursday, March 3, 2011

Offensive or Just Ugly?

Iran has declared that the new logo for the Summer Olympics Game in London for 2012 is racist. It appears that the logo is a hidden message in support of Zion, which is a biblical term for Judaism, as well as a pro-Israel movement that was well-known in the interwar period. Iran claims that the racist logo may cause them to boycott the event. You can see the full story and logo here:

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Iran-threatens-London-boycott-over-racist-Olym?urn=oly-327678

The IOC rejected this complaint based on the fact that there is no hidden message and it's merely 2012 which is depicted on the logo. Frankly, this logo does offend me, but not because it's racist. It's just ugly. Who chose that colour scheme? And the zigzag bad 80s style number cutouts? It looks more like something you would have seen on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. All it needs are humongous shoulder pads and a perm.

I'm also offended that this was the logo chosen to represent London, one of the world's most exciting capitals and superior fashion sense that makes everyone want to be a Londoner, dressed to the nines on the tube with tickets to the footy match. Surely they could have come up with something better than this? This is the same fashion-forward nation that created the punk movement and the Rolling Stones. They practically invented cool. This logo does not capture any of that.

Lastly, I'm offended by the choice of 2012. Don't they know that this is the end of the world as we know it according to the Mayan Calendar? Don't they have any respect for the apocalypse? Personally, if this set of games was going to be humanity's last hurrah before the end, I would want it to be presentable. Really.

Iran may want to boycott the games, but then again, so might all the fashionable people. Londoners, stay away.

No comments:

Post a Comment