LONDON: Forget global warming; ignore the missile poker game between Russia and the US; pay no heed to the rumblings that may presage a world stock market crash. Planet Earth can breathe again.
The Visa global payment system has declared itself "pleased" with the new logo for the 2012 London Olympics - despite a tsunami of criticism for its design by the self-styled "world's most influential brand business", Wolff Olins.
Visa's evp of sponsorship, Colin Grannell, clearly has an eye for the finer points of surrealism, proclaiming his "delight" at the "flexible" nature of the new logo, unveiled to a barrage of derision on Monday by London 2012 chairman, the former Olympic athlete-cum-politician Sebastian Coe.
The dislike of the logo is not merely a matter of aesthetics - or even marketing savvy.
Medical experts have voiced concern that the animated logo, as shown on a promotional video, can trigger fits among epileptics.
Accordingly, the event's organisers are hastily re-editing the video to neutralise the fast-cutting, garishly-coloured, "new rave" effects that allegedly sparked the fits.
Other sponsors have yet to voice a verdict on the logo. Their silence to date is deafening.
Data sourced from mad.co.uk; additional content by WARC staff
