It is a logo – of course it’s a logo – it can’t be anything else but a logo. The brand is “Olympics” which defines the nature of the organisation – the emblem / logo is just an image that represents the brand.

A brand is (or at least should be) the essence of an organisation. The Google brand is the reason Googlers have access to the 20% time program, some sweet facilties and an original work ethic – the Google logo is something that everyone can indentify and associate with the brand.

So in that respect, I totally agree with the CiM – the 2012 logo does nothing to promote the Olympics brand (or more specifically, the “London Olympics 2012″ brand) – it’s just the bastard child of unoriginal thought and self indulgent creatives. Despite the importance of the date of the event, it isn’t the most important facet of the brand and as such it really shouldn’t be the focus of the logo.

The 2012 logo is to other logos what keyword spamming is to creative copywriting IMO.