Will the London 2012 Olympic Games be an advertisement for sport and fun, or health and safety? I ask because my abiding memory of Britain's toe-curling contribution to the Beijing closing ceremony involved a young girl, 'representing' British children after winning a Blue Peter competition, being helped across a zebra crossing.
Ignoring the irony of our zebra crossings being scrapped in droves over health and safety concerns, the girl's appearance contrasted starkly with two girls who featured in the preceding Chinese extravaganza precariously seated on a raised stage, beating the living daylights out of drum kits twice their size.
So congratulations to Cadbury for putting a bit of risk (and risk capital) into the 2012 Olympics. As a manufacturer of chocolate bars, its support for the London Games is bound to attract accusations of impropriety from the anti-obesity police. But it's good to see a food and drink manufacturer - a British one too - prepared to put its head above the parapet.
With the economy in meltdown and the Olympic village set to be nationalised, Cadbury's timing looks impeccable. With apologies to Jo Moore, the hapless former Labour Party spin doctor, it was a good day to 'bury' good news. As we report on p12, the NGOs have been surprisingly muted, recognising perhaps that, like a bar of chocolate, we all need a boost.
Even Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, found time this week for some praise "to celebrate what the food and drink industry has already achieved", as she writes in this week's issue of The Grocer (p22). And credit to Primarolo for urging the industry to do what The Grocer has been saying and look at portion sizes (as opposed to the FSA's 100g nutrient profiling model). Now let's hope, instead of vouchers, Cadbury takes up the baton and delivers on both fun and games for the Olympics. Scrap the zebras. Let's bring out the drum kits.
Ignoring the irony of our zebra crossings being scrapped in droves over health and safety concerns, the girl's appearance contrasted starkly with two girls who featured in the preceding Chinese extravaganza precariously seated on a raised stage, beating the living daylights out of drum kits twice their size.
So congratulations to Cadbury for putting a bit of risk (and risk capital) into the 2012 Olympics. As a manufacturer of chocolate bars, its support for the London Games is bound to attract accusations of impropriety from the anti-obesity police. But it's good to see a food and drink manufacturer - a British one too - prepared to put its head above the parapet.
With the economy in meltdown and the Olympic village set to be nationalised, Cadbury's timing looks impeccable. With apologies to Jo Moore, the hapless former Labour Party spin doctor, it was a good day to 'bury' good news. As we report on p12, the NGOs have been surprisingly muted, recognising perhaps that, like a bar of chocolate, we all need a boost.
Even Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, found time this week for some praise "to celebrate what the food and drink industry has already achieved", as she writes in this week's issue of The Grocer (p22). And credit to Primarolo for urging the industry to do what The Grocer has been saying and look at portion sizes (as opposed to the FSA's 100g nutrient profiling model). Now let's hope, instead of vouchers, Cadbury takes up the baton and delivers on both fun and games for the Olympics. Scrap the zebras. Let's bring out the drum kits.
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