In the tricky world of corporate branding, a row has broken out between Wikipedia and the FBI over the use of its seal. In a letter sent to Wikipedia’s San Francisco office, the FBI said that “unauthorised reproduction of the FBI Seal was prohibited by US law”. “Whoever possesses any insignia…or any colourable imitation there of..shall be fined…or imprisoned… or both,” the FBI wrote.

Not being easily phased, Wikipedia denied that it had done anything wrong and said that FBI lawyers had “misquoted the law”. The issue centred on the FBI’s Wikipedia entry which, in addition to information on the US bureau, also features an image of the “Seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation”.

“We are compelled as a matter of law and principle to deny your demand for removal of the FBI Seal from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons,” said Mr Godwin from Wikipedia adding that the firm was “prepared to argue our view in court.”

Does the FBI have nothing better to do? I’m sure a quick look on Google images will find hundreds of other examples of their logo.

Have you been one of the people buying promotional banners, branded flags and other printed noise making equipment? If yes, maybe you were one of the many evicted peace protesters who have been camping in Parliament Square since May.

Last week the Court of Appeal rejected an application by demonstrators at the camp, dubbed the Democracy Village, who wanted to be allowed to remain. Bailiffs and police moved in at about 0100 BST, although a handful of activists tied themselves to scaffolding and trees. They have now been removed and a fence has been put up around the square.

London mayor Boris Johnson, who took legal action to remove the Democracy Village, had criticised the spectacle as “nauseating”. While protest organiser Chris Knight said: “This is part of a much wider protest”…”We’re not going very far and we’re not going away.” Some protesters have promised a wave of further demonstrations, dubbing the campaign “Operation Rolling Thunder”.

If you’re part of Operation Thunder and require some more promotional products to get your point across, contact the friendly team over at Gift Selection and Promostore.

Since Cheryl Cole is starting divorce proceedings, she’s decided that getting rid of her ‘Mrs C’ tattoo on her neck isn’t a bad idea either.

She has asked her management to clear a few more days to have the inking on the back of her back removed. If I were her, I’d get that tattoo of her hand and thigh removed too, but what do I know?

Cheryl wants it to be done in secret – unlike when Jordan had her “Pete” wrist tattoo inked over with a big black cross, which was all caught on camera for her reality TV series. If you just do the exact opposite of whatever Jordan does you can’t go too far wrong, whatever the situation. A friend of Cheryl’s told the Daily Mirror; “She wants it done discreetly and with class. She’s not one for big crass statements.” Not one for big crass statements - really?

Are you looking for some branding, but worried you’ll regret it? You want to go to a quality promotional product distributer, who can advise you on what sort of artwork will work best for you. Gift Selection is one quality distributer who will stop you from ‘Doing a Cheryl’, and make sure you get your branding exactly right.

Whether you’re looking for your corporate message to be; printed, engraved, embossed, stitched or molded, Gift Selection will get it right for you first time.

London 2012’s new mascots have been unveiled, and I’m wondering if I’m the only person who actually thought they were a joke. I mean, ‘Wenlock’ and ‘Mandeville,’ really?

This was the product of eighteen months of research and forty focus groups. From the top of my head I think a torch called ‘Flamey’ would have been a better idea. At least it would have been recognizable, had a catchy name and cost absolutely nothing to think of.

To be fair their unusual names do have meaning behind them as Wenlock in Shropshire is considered by many the birthplace of the modern Olympics. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the IOC, visited the town in 1890 and took inspiration from the annual Games organised by Dr William Penny Brookes, a local doctor, to “promote the moral, physical and intellectual improvement of the inhabitants”.

Stoke Mandeville’s famous spinal injuries unit meanwhile was where the Paralympics movement began, and the naming of one mascot after the hospital is an explicit attempt to raise the profile of the Paralympics Games.

These mascots are all about making money however, with big businesses to be had from selling promotional merchandise. London 2012 say the key to meeting their commercial target has been developing a storyline that will lend Wenlock and Mandeville credibility in a pre-teen marketplace where they will be up against Dr Who and other established brands.

Lord Coe and the committee recruited former Children’s’ Laureate Michael Morpurgo, who came up with the concept of the mascots being fashioned from two drops of molten steel spilt in the making of the last steel girder used in the Olympic Stadium. Since when did children need a story line to be persuaded by something anyway? The Teletubies weren’t a success because of the interesting anthropological questions raised by their unusual gene pool. They were a success because they were fun and that’s it. 

Stephen Bayley, founder of the Design Museum, believes his daughter summed the mascots up perfectly when she referred to them as ‘rubbish earrings’. He said: ‘The logo was hideous enough but now we have these ridiculous, infantile mascots. Who is to blame for this I ask you? ‘Given the economic predicament that Britain is in at the minute, what right do they have to throw their money at such hideous creatures? They are atrocious.’

To be fair there has never been a decent Olympic games mascot. If you don’t agree, can you recall a single one? Waldi the multi-coloured Daschund anyone? I didn’t think so…

We’re all up for some self promotion here, one way another, you can get your message across. It doesn’t necessarily mean it will be well received though, as the Senegalese people will tell you.

Senegal has inaugurated a new monument, higher than the Statue of Liberty, costing a bargain £18m. The 49m (160ft) Monument of African Renaissance has been unveiled in Dakar as the highlight of the nation’s 50th anniversary of independence, but has drawn huge criticism over its cost and symbolism.

The Soviet-style bronze statue, built by North Korean workers, is the idea of President Abdoulaye Wade, who not one to miss an opportunity, said he should take 35% of the revenue generated by the monument because it was his idea.

Nineteen heads of state, including Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo, attended the statue’s inauguration, which coincided with the country celebrating 50 years of independence from France.

Deputy opposition leader Ndeye Fatou Toure said the statue was an “economic monster and a financial scandal in the context of the current [economic] crisis,” AFP news agency reported. Not only that, but now most of the Muslim community has got the hump, as scholars have labelled its scantily clad figures un-Islamic, while others said it was a waste of money and ‘idolatrous’.

On the eve of the celebrations, the Reuters news agency quoted a leading imam, Massamba Diop, as telling worshippers at a mosque in the capital: “We have issued a fatwa urging Senegal’s imams this Friday to read the holy Koran in the mosques simply to ask Allah to preserve us from the punishment this monument of shame risks bringing on Senegal.”

Apart from that, the ceremony went down very well. If you have a budget of £18m, or even less, talk to the promotion experts at Gift Selection who will share their expert advice.

How about this for a good piece of branding? A Hollywood-style sign spelling out the name of an Essex town has been erected along the A127. Basildon District Council hopes the giant letters will promote the town as a place to do business.

The £400,000 project is being funded from a grant from Thames Gateway. The glitzy sign, modeled on the famous Hollywood sign, is part of a package of measures to signpost the district better and make it easier for visitors to find their way. People in the Essex area can now, presuming they actually want to go Basildon, can just look up and follow their noses.

What I love about British council’s, is that they know how to save money sensibly. Spend £400,000 a sign – absolutely no problem. Council leader Tony Ball said: “The sign will be good if it makes people think ‘ah, Basildon’ when they drive past, rather than just driving through, and in no time finding themselves at Rayleigh Weir.”

It isn’t all about ex London gangsters, and girls wearing white stilettos and not much else. According to Denise Van Outen (Basildon born and bread), the girls have “moved from that image and now the girls are all into the WAG look.”

Changed beyond all recognition then. If you work for a council, and are looking for some more affordable ways to promote yourself. Investing in some value for money promotional material from Promostore isn’t a bad idea.

If your business is struggling, promoting it in a cost effective way is your best plan of action. Spreading your corporate identity and marketing your business in a tasteful way, will hopefully get your business back on its feet.

Rather than invest in promotional items, a business women decided to diversify, which looking back on it, probably wasn’t the best course of action. Sheri Uppal was an antique dealer whose business rapidly declined during the recession, so naturally she decided to turn her business into a brothel, which she ran from her family home in Torquay.

Police raided it after locals complained about men visiting at night, who weren’t presumable antique hunting. She admitting the offence, and got a nine month suspended sentence, and ordered to do 125 hours unpaid community service at Exeter Crown Court. Judge Graham Cottle told her: “Your financial circumstances were dire but it is quite a leap to keeping a brother.”

Yesterday it was banning smoking in Finland; today there are calls for tighter labelling of alcohol here in the UK. The Tories are proposing to swap the system of using units to tell consumers how much alcohol their drink contains, for one focused on the metric volume of alcohol and the calorie content.

What I want to know is, how come dingy pubs are full of thin and weary looking men, if they’re drinking calorie packed pints every minute they are open. Anyway, the Conservatives plan to negotiate a voluntary agreement with the drinks industry should it come to power this year, as part of its health manifesto laid out by shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley.

Their policy has arisen from Health Select Committee’s report on alcohol abuse last week. Several of the report’s recommendations could affect the drinks industry, including restrictions on advertising and sponsorship as well as a minimum price per unit.

If you’re looking for promotional products that may require special information by law, rest assured a quality corporate gift supplier like Gift Selection will have everything you need to know.

The paternal government of Finland has become the world’s first state to take the bold move to completely phase out smoking.

Anti-tobacco laws are being tightened further, in what anti-smoking campaigners have cleverly called a war on the cigarette industry. Their citizen’s reaction to the government’s plans has been mixed. Many people cite that they would prefer future children not to grow up around smokers, while other groups, namely smokers, would prefer to carry on smoking.

Marketing for tobacco companies around the world is getting tougher, one method however is to use branded lighters. Promotional cigarette lighters are an unusual promotional item, but they much more common on the continent then in the UK.

The same Bic who make your low cost promotional pens, also manufacture great value promotional cigarette lighters too. Quality corporate gift suppliers like Gift Selection, can organise great value Bic Lighters with your artwork and get them to you ASAP.

 Apart from investing in quality promotional products from reputable suppliers such as Gift Selection or the Mug Store, a popular way for businesses to market themselves is via Google Adwords.

However Google faces taxes on its massive advertising revenue in France as part of president Nicolas Sarkozy’s ambition to regulate the internet. Proposals in a government-led report handed to culture minister Frederic Mitterrand recommend Google and other internet search providers should be forced to pay a levy every time a user clicks on their sponsored links.

Google France senior policy manager Olivier Esper said an additional tax on internet advertising would “slow down innovation” and the best way “to support content creation is to find new business models that help consumers find great content and rewards artists and publishers for their work”.

Last year here in the UK, Google was accused of legally avoiding more than £450m in corporation tax on the £1.6bn advertising revenues in made here last year. The Sunday Times reported they had diverted all its advertising earnings from customers in Britain to its Irish subsidiary. It turns out that Google’s crafty accountants made sure they paid just £141,519 in Corporation Tax.