Team GB

I constantly hear presenters and commentators referring to the oh so trendy Team GB but this title is never used during medal presentations nor on the Medals Table where the team is correctly called Great Britain.

Can the BBC please stop pandering to the wannabee Americans please?
Pip pip!

Welcome to the forum - unfortunately with a rather silly comment.

http://www.teamgb.com

Team GB is an official brand.

So maybe there is an argument for the BBC not using it then.

However I believe it is what the team want to be called - isn't that reason enough?

Athletes at the Olympics and Paralympics technically compete for their teams, not for their countries.

"Great Britain is the team that sends athletes from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) plus the three Crown dependencies and all but three of the British overseas territories, to the Olympic Games." - Wiki

Thus, referring to the Great Britain team as Team GB is entirely accurate and is how the team wishes to be referred to as.

They sometimes refer to it on BBC News as "Great Britain's Olympic Team".

I have no strong feelings either way on this, I'm just playing devil's advocate really but the BBC must have to be careful when mentioning brands that are not under their control. I wonder if they would call them Team Coke-a-Cola if that was what the team wanted to be called. Probably not, but the same thing already happens in Formula One, with a team called Red Bull. Even the Team GB brand can be used for other things in the future. The brand owner (whoever that ultimately is) could decide to launch Team GB branded sports clothing or drinks and they would be doing so using a brand that was placed in the public psyche largely by the BBC.

I had similar concerns when the CBBC Channel changed their logo to say 'SClub' ostensibly to promote an SClub TV show, but by doing so they were also promoting the SClub brand and anything and everything it was attached to.

No, that would be ridiculous. The brand you're mangling is Coca Cola, or Coke. Not your Frankenstein version.

It does make you wonder why they didn't go for Team UK which would sound a touch more inclusive (only missing out CI/Isle of Man as opposed to Northern Ireland).

I believe its because the British Isles is the name given to every thing around us, Ireland, Britain, Isle of man and CI etc,

so I believe is using GB includes most of the island.

But it's Great Britain, not the British Isles...