The PR Olympics
Aug 18th, 2008 by Eileen MacLean
At the Olympic Games it is not uncommon for the athletic triumphs to be overshadowed with political protests, unrests and even violence. From Jesse Owens shocking Adolf Hitler to the hostage killings at the Munich Games, political undertones accompany each new Olympic Games, every new host country.
As the media spotlight has intensified over the past few decades, the Olympics have become a “PR Olympics” of sorts. Countries, teams and athletes scramble to push their good name, triumphs and messages into the spotlight. When U.S. athletes arrived in Beijing wearing breathing masks (a jab at the controversy regarding poor air quality in China), U.S. Olympic Team spokespeople were quick to respond, apologize and put out the fire. China’s image was also damaged by two actions revealed by the media after the opening ceremonies. In an apparent attempt to leverage global media coverage at the Olympics, China allegedly arranged for the little girl singing “Ode to the Motherland” to lip-sync to another girl’s voice because the public performer was deemed more physically attractive than the girl behind the beautiful voice. China was also accused of digitally altering television coverage of the fireworks display at the opening.
In 2004, Greece was set to host the games in an anticipated return to origin city of Athens. The city was under heavy ridicule as the games quickly approached and Athens wasn’t ready. But the games rolled around and showcased the resolve of the Greek people, their rich historical culture and Greece reaped the awards in media praise and tourists’ money.
The Olympics offers a city and country some of the biggest PR opportunities and stages there are. The Olympic city and country get to stand-alone on the world stage and present their culture, people, achievements, abilities and tourist attractions.
This is why every year cities, through their robust PR and marketing agency teams, battle it out to be selected as the next Olympics host city. For the 2012 Summer Olympics, London beat out 4 other candidate cities, including New York, Paris and Moscow, to earn the coveted role.
The selection of Beijing for 2008 sparked a long run of controversy for the Olympic Committee. When the games close on August 24th, we will see if China succeeded at turning around what has certainly started as a tarnished image for this year’s host city.