The Olympic Flame was blown out, terminating the XXXI Olympiad (Rio 2016) and handing over to Tokyo 2020. These Summer Games, the first in South America, will be remembered for the contrast between lights and shadows. On the one hand, the glory won by Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Usain Bolt, the amazing cross-channel media coverages and the takeaways given by inspirational stories. On the other side, however, the virus Zika, the green pools, the scandal of the US swimmers headed by Lochte, the echoes of doping and corruption and, of course, the #Rule40 revealed what mistakes should not be made in the digital era and what problems should not come up during such kind of event, but also what best practices should be followed.
 
As we already explained in the preview article, the relaxation of #Rule40 by the IOC, although it meant to take a step forward in the rights of those non-sponsor brands that have a contract with an Olympic athlete, forced those brands to come up with inventive concepts and stimulate their creativity to make profit and stand out without mentioning, even vaguely, any intellectual property content related to the Games. With the rules laid down, did anyone fulfil these expectations? Were there brands which deserve the gold medal in smartness? Let’s see!