Hasta La Ideas

Today’s Google Doodle features an array of winter sports cast in the rainbow colours of the Gay Pride flag to coincide with the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi

In addition to the doodle, Google’s home page also displays a quote from the Olympic Charter

The Doodle links to search results about the Olympic Charter and also to news stories about the rainbow doodle itself.

It’s an interesting extension of the doodle which so far has mostly been used to commemorate significant anniversaries or birthdays (see compilation here) and underlines just what a powerful communications device it has become. But it also begs the question of whether Google’s support for gay rights in Russia goes beyond this (albeit welcome) gesture. And also whether sponsors at the Games should involve themselves in the debate around gay rights in Russia.

Google is not the only organisation to adopt the rainbow device in support of gay rights at this time. As we reported yesterday, Channel 4 has also adopted the motif, using it to create an alternative version of its famous logo

In 2008, Andrew Blauvelt wrote an interesting post at Design Obsever on the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the rainbow flag by the LGBT community, noting the way in which it has been used an abused by those seeking to support or profit from the community and tracing its origins. Read it here

Read John Lloyd’s piece for CR about the Google Doodle here.

UPDATE: The Guardian has also adopted rainbow colours in the ‘g’ of its online masthead.