Last but not least: Minimal surreptitious advertising

The Olympic Games in London may be over, but one story in connection with advertising should still be mentioned here. No, it's not about Michael Phelps, who lay down in the bathtub with a Louis Vuitton handbag before the end of the advertising ban period and is said not to have known about the pictures afterwards. The traditional Olympic ban on all advertising was circumvented by the Mini car brand in a far more charming way: During the athletics competitions, remote-controlled Mini-Minis on a scale of 1:5 brought the javelin, discus and hammer back to the athletes. The cute miniature vehicles were not approved by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) because they were adorable, but because the Mini brand was known worldwide as an unmistakable British symbol. The Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) - which has owned the brand for more than ten years - could certainly live with this justification. As was the child in the man, by the way. The fact that it was not the new German clone, but the original British Mini that truly represented the rainy island in the minds of the world's population was generously overlooked.