London is a small agricultural village in the commune of
Savigny-sur-Seille in the
Arrondissement of Louhans in
Saône-et-Loire
Saône-et-Loire (; Arpitan: ''Sona-et-Lêre'') is a department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France. It is named after the rivers Saône and Loire, between which it lies, in the country's central-eastern part.
Saône-et-Loire is B ...
,
Burgundy
Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...
, France. 80 kilometres (50 mi) south of
Dijon
Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oïl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Côte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in eas ...
, the D206 road goes through the village.
Its brief claim to fame was its part in an
ambush marketing
Ambush marketing or ambush advertising is a marketing strategy in which an advertiser "wikt:ambush, ambushes" an event to compete for exposure against other advertisers.
The term was coined by marketing strategist Jerry Welsh, while he was work ...
campaign by the bookmaker
Paddy Power
Paddy Power is an Irish gambling company founded in 1988. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are led from its headquarters in Dublin, alongside a satellite office ...
in 2012. Prior to the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England, the company sponsored an
egg-and-spoon race in the Burgundy village, and then placed large posters in Britain claiming that they were "The official sponsor of the largest athletics event in London this year!", adding beneath "Ahem, London France that is"—there was no explicit mention of the Olympic Games. The Games'
organising committee ordered the posters to be taken down, as it only permits Games-related advertising by official sponsors, and prohibits promotion of betting related to the Games, but backtracked after Paddy Power threatened to take the organizers to court.
References
Villages in Saône-et-Loire
{{Louhans-geo-stub