Ahead of the summer full of exciting sporting events, Chain Reaction wanted to highlight that unfortunately due to brand restrictions, Chain Reaction Cycles products or links cannot be used in posts in association with any promotion or mention of the Rio 2016 Olympics, through the affiliate programme or otherwise.    

Included below is a statement from their Marketing Director, to explain the decisions and reasons behind this request:
 
“I just want to take a moment to explain the very strong restrictions on the use of Olympic logos, brandmarks and copyrighted terms around the Olympics. These will probably strike you as pretty draconian. Nevertheless, they have been strictly enforced in recent Olympic years, and we should expect them to be enforced just as strictly for Rio. That enforcement includes court action and very significant fines. (This is all done to protect the interest of those official sponsors who have paid millions to be allowed to associate their brands with the Olympics.)
 
As you might expect, all use of Olympic logos (not just the five rings, but the Paralympic logo, the Rio 2016 logo, etc) is restricted solely to official sponsors.  Films, publications, presentations, images, music, artwork and visual elements created by Rio 2016 or other official Olympic and Paralympic authorities that relate to the Games are also protected by copyright. That includes the little pictograms used to identify each sport or group of sports. These restrictions include graphic depictions of the Olympic Flame, and also any historic logos, images etc (from past Olympic Games).
 
There are also a significant list of certain words associated with the Olympics which are also copyrighted. Specifically these include: ‘Olympic Games’, ‘Paralympic Games’, ‘Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games’, ‘Rio 2016 Games’, ‘Rio 2016’, ‘Rio Olympiad’, ‘Rio 2016 Olympiad’, ‘XXXI Olympic Games'.  The list goes on longer than this, and includes translations and minor variations. So, to underline this point, we are not allowed to entitle any promotion an ‘Olympic promotion’. We’re not allowed to say something like ‘to celebrate the Olympics we’re taking 10% off ...’ or even to mention Rio 2016 at the top of an email or advert.”