Olympics minister urged to act fast on marketing rules

Olympics minister Hugh Robertson was urged this week to stop “obfuscating” and act quickly to ease the strict rules on Olympic marketing.

In a parliamentary answer last month to Labour counterpart Tessa Jowell on the No Marketing Rights Protocol, Robertson said he recognised industry complaints that the rules were too restrictive and prevented firms from promoting their work, but said “the regulations, of course, apply only until just after the Games”.

However, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) have now confirmed that the protocol will remain in place after the Games and will be enforceable by the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations (BOA/BPA).

Campaigner and chairman of New London Architecture, Peter Murray, said Robertson was “obfuscating” and had been contradicted by his own department.

Murray called on the minister to redouble efforts to allow all Olympic firms to promote their success before the end of the Games.

“Even if he is able to restrain the Olympic lawyers in September, this is too little too late,” he said.

“The time when consultants and contractors can gain most benefit from their association with the Games is right now - not when the circus has moved on to Rio.”

Murray was joined this week by Conservative Party member of the London Assembly, Andrew Boff.

He told Building: “Nobody is saying that all British companies that worked on the Games should be able to use the Olympic logo but they should be able to point to their involvement in this internationally recognised project to market themselves.”

A DCMS spokeswoman said: “The agreements that businesses working on London 2012 have signed with the Olympic Delivery Authority [and] LOCOG will be enforceable by the BOA/BPA.”