Duct-Tape Police Target Non-Sponsors at Olympics

TURIN, Italy (AP)—Samsung can’t put its name on its popular flat-screen televisions, even in its own VIP lounge. Workers at Winter Olympic venues are taping over the Dell logos on laptops in the press boxes. The Austrians had to cover up the spiders on their Spyder jackets.

The advertising police are out in force at the Turin Games, enforcing arcane rules with a vigor unmatched at Olympics past. 

“We don’t want the Olympic Games becoming, let’s say, a Formula-1 event where sponsors are on cars, on banners, everywhere,” said Cecilia Gandini, the head of brand protection for the Turin organizing committee. Gandini can recite Olympic advertising regulations from memory and spends her days touring venues in search of violations.  (Associated Press)