Heineken, the Dutch lager, was chosen last month to be the official supplier of beer to London 2012.
In the previous 4 Games, the official beer was native to the hosting country, with Fosters supplying the Sydney Games with their ‘Amber nectar’, the Athenian Brewery being the choice in Athens, and Yanjing Lager of China sponsoring the Beijing Games.
Not only does the break from Olympic tradition ignore the fantastically well-produced lagers that Britain offers the world, it also goes against the Games’ emphasis on British character. Costing £4.20 for a 330mml bottle (that’s the same size as a regular can of soft drink) Heineken won’t exactly be cheap either! There’s more about their sponsorship on Marketing Magazine.
At least the Dutch brand is providing an element of fun during their sponsorship, having hired JCDecaux’s Transvision screen at Charing Cross station for 4 weeks, on which fans have been uploading photos of themselves celebrating the Games. The brand has also kitted out 150 London pubs and taken over Ally Pally for the duration of the Games so we’ve been busy making all of that happen along the way and look forward to attending the odd event in the weeks ahead!