Emperor's New Clothes and Olympic Logos

Edgy symbol of digital age or artistic flop - London unveils Olympic logo

"To some it looked like a graffiti tag, to others like a mosaic of beer mats, but to the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics the pink, blue, green and orange emblem unveiled yesterday is the most significant milestone since winning the bid nearly two years ago. It is also the key to raising hundreds of millions of pounds. When London last staged the games in 1948, posters showed an iconic image of a discus thrower superimposed over Big Ben and the houses of parliament. The £400,000 logo for 2012 is designed for a different age, described by creators as dynamic, modern and flexible - suitable for use online and on mobile phones by a generation at ease with new media."

You've got to admit it's a mad world we're living in. A logo which looks like a spikey jam blob which costs £400k results in an online petition to scrap it within hours. Long gone is polite acceptance of things we're 'supposed' to like. The obedient head nodding in public, with real opinions expressed only amongst friends. It used to be that we lived in an Emperer's New Clothes world where even though deep down we thought something was crazy, societal politeness meant we'd probably go along with it. Only a child, a person not trained into subservience, would challenge the status quo; the crowd would believe what they were meant to believe. Now, everyone's the lone voice. No-one nods along. It's rubbish, we say it's rubbish. We broadcast it to our friends. Official press releases heralding things like this are meaningless. The official media reports on the informal media of blogs, online petitions, social networks.

Did Web 2.0 signal the end of public obedience? Or was it never really there anyway?

PS It is foul though, isn't it? :o)