ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out to examine how exponents of global mega-sport events, while claiming that they foster and develop unity, friendship and cosmopolitan identities, are in fact increasingly concerned more with our identities as consumers. It is significant that the campaign was developed within the International Olympic Committee's (IOC's) marketing department, in order to attract and maintain the interest of sponsors, and provide the ‘metaphoric empty flask’ that the Olympics had come to represent. In fact the IOC have been involved in extensive marketing research since 1985. The aim of branding is for the company or product to accumulate symbolic meaning through various associations, which serve to differentiate the brand from competitors who are essentially providing very similar products, or services. Indeed, in the build-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, the IOC is following a similar strategy to previous games – with one exception.
