‘Just Put Down the Pepsi …’: London 2012 and the Corporations

Abstract

As has by now been well established by critical accounts of the Olympic movement, the Games have become increasingly corporate in nature over the last 30 years. In relation to London 2012, two anecdotes, among many, evoke the restrictions imposed on behalf of Olympic ‘partner’ corporations, not only on the Games themselves but on the civil liberties of citizens of the host city. The first occurred while Danny Boyle’s ‘Isles of Wonder’ was still being performed. Members of Critical Mass, a group that promotes cycling and takes a monthly cycle ride around London, were prevented by Metropolitan Police from riding their bikes north across Thames bridges and detained under Section 12 of the Public Order Act of 1986. They were then ‘kettled’ — that is, herded into, and confined within, a specific space for a prolonged period. There were 182 arrests.¹ The contradictions here were numerous and inescapable: a British cyclist (Bradley Wiggins, the winner of the recent Tour de France) had just rung the bell to open the Olympic ceremony and, according to the promotional template established by the Coe team, could become an ‘inspiration’ to would-be cyclists across the nation; cyclists were among the most fancied to win medals in the British contingent; the ceremony itself celebrated the history and tradition of political demonstration in Britain; cycling, as opposed to motor transport, might have been applauded as ecologically sensible, amid a ‘sustainable’ Olympics; and, most importantly, the Games had been awarded on the basis of a promise to promote sports participation and physical fitness.