Several advertisers took a humorous approach, including Virgin Atlantic, with a poster simply reading: "Yessss!!! Congratulations London, we knew you'd land it." It was created by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R.
EasyJet took its standard cheeky approach with a press ad referring to French Prime Minister Chirac's recent string of bad publicity. Its ad read: "Jacques, flights on sale from December 2011 (We just thought you'd like to know", along with a congratulatory message.
On a similar theme, Eurostar was advising people: "If London gets a bit crowded in summer 2012, you can always go to Paris." Yesterday, as Paris and London were awaiting the decision of the International Olympic Committee, Eurostar staff wore T-shirts proclaiming their support for London on one side, and for Paris on the other.
Also taking a humorous approach was Mars, with a press ad proclaiming: "Running 5 rings around the competition."
M&C Saatchi and The Ingram Partnership took out a full-page ad in The Independent featuring three of the executions it had created for the London 2012 bid. The ad reads: "Good work!" and then "Congratulations to everyone at London 2012 from their advertising agency M&C Saatchi and their media strategist The Ingram Partnership."
BT, one of the official sponsors of the bid, also ran tactical ads in national newspapers, with an ad saying: "BT is proud to have backed the 2012 Olympic bid." EDF Energy, which had backed both the London and Paris bids, took out an ad that ran: "The fire of London 2012", congratulating the bid team.
But even the French managed to put a brave face on the disappointment of losing -- in full-page ads, Renault proclaimed: "The French Win It!", explaining in rather smaller type at the bottom that the new Renault Clio has been awarded five stars in the Euro NCAP crash tests. And, as an afterthought, it says: "Oh, well done for the 2012 thing."
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