olympics
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How did you celebrate the Olympics Opening Ceremony?
We decided to celebrate the opening of the Olympics with international food at Capstrat.
4:00 pm Opening ceremony begins:
- Olympics theme song from YouTube
- Kevin Craig speaks a few words in Mandarin (he lived in China for a couple of years and is fluent).
4:02 pm Veggie Corn Dog Eating contest (to celebrate America):
- Gold: Chris Haslup
- Silver: Milton Irizarry
- Bronze: Virginia Ingram
4:02:05 International Snacking Begins:
- Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies (Amsterdam, Holland)
- Lays Ranch Dressing Dip (Redneck Country)
- UTZ Pretzels (Bavarian region in Germany)
- UTZ Tortilla Chips (Mexico)
- LaChoy Chow Mein Noodles (China)
- Grey Poupon Mustard (France)
- Inglehoffer Mustard (Germany)
- Swiss Cheese (Swittzerland)
- HT Traders Italian Soda (Italy)
- Manischewitz Soup Crackers (Israel)
- Snapple Earl Grey Tea (England)
- Canada Dry Ginger Ale (Canada)
- Moosehead Beer (Canada)
- Coronitas (little Coronas) (Mexico)
- Pabst Blue Ribbon (USA)
- Bavaria Beer (Holland)
- Japanese Rice crackers mix (Japan)
Of course, our snacking standards would not pass the real Olympic standards. It wasn't really PC, a couple of countries are over represented (Holland, Mexico and Canada) and there are many unrepresented countries.
It was a great way to start the Olympics.
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My Bad! Mama Earth Unhappy with Marketing
The Olympic Torch is probably feeling burned out right now. A jaunt around the globe sounds romantic, but not with thousands of protesters dogging you. Plus, it's hard to get 'fired up' with folks checking your carbon. Here, Slate.com analyzes the Torch's green credentials ... http://www.slate.com/id/2188876/Reading the report, it dawned on me: this isn't a Torch issue, this is a call-to-action for the entire marketing industry. For a long time, we've made hay with the grand goodwill gesture. Often this involves sending some special something-or-other and attendant VIPs traveling around a state, a country, the world. That's understandable; tours and events can be effective ways to get out a message.
Four years ago, I played a big role in launching a p.r. tour that helped a lot of people. I'm still proud of that, but today I know that any message, any gesture will be measured against its environmental impact. Four years ago, I didn't give that a second thought, unfortunately. Today, I'd look at buying carbon credits to off-set the impact of my p.r. barnstorm or at going completely virtual with it.
There are lots of viable options, but ignoring the dilemmas and trade-offs isn't one of them. And the grand goodwill tour is just one of the classic tactics we marketing folks need to wrestle with. Just check out all the paper that goes into an annual report!
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