First post of the year - PR & Ad in the flesh...

So for my first post of twentyten I thought it would be nice to start off with some spirit.

I attended the Olympic torch ceremony at The Forks on Jan.5 and witnessed the torch being carried to the podium to light the cauldron that housed the flame during its stay here in Winnipeg. I was able to snap some pics with my cell though the quality was pretty low.

Though we didn't as close to the main stage as we would like to be, we were able to watch the big screens on top of the stage. We stood right in fron the CTV News crew and took a picture of Gord LeClerc and Sylvia Kuzyk, not sure who the girl in the middle is.

As I stood there I realized this was the kind of stuff we were learning in school: how to be in front of the camera and how to operate a camera. It was kinda neat to see it outside of our learning grounds and see how this stuff works in the real world of broadcast journalism. I don't plan to major in journalism but this stuff still interests me and seeing it right in front of me with all the people at a major public event was pretty cool! Who wouldn't want to be on that CTV stage dressed in Olympic gear to deliver the news fresh as it happens??? I'm sure that night was the highlight of their week lol.





As I enjoyed the community and Olympic spirit of hundreds of Winnipeggers around me, I couldn't, however, think of how much preparation it took to make this event actually happen. I'm sure it took a lot of PR and advertising for the event planners from start until they actually saw Noah Palansky running into The Forks with the torch that carried the flame that symbolized an entire country getting together. That single image, I'm sure, was worth all the trouble it took to arrange the event from start to finish with all its joys and all its problems.

So I wondered what certain things event co-ordinators had to do to make it a reality. Well, I'm guessing there must have been a pitch to have the event happen in the city, at The Forks; either Mayor Katz to the Olympic committee or the olympic committee to Mayor Katz. Either way, someone had to write a memo/letter of why this event would be beneficial to Winnipeg, Winnipeggers, and Olympic fans. Obviously, that letter was pretty convincing.





In an ad perspective, I noticed Coca-Cola was everywhere at the event. One might conclude that Coke is the official sponsor for the 2010 Olympics or was at least a major sponsor. So for this to happen, someone from Coca-Cola is the head of all Olympic advertisements, making sure that everything Coca-Cola pumps out in terms of add has a certain uniformity in their Olympic ads. The colour must be consistent, the tone of their ads, the length, the script, every ad should be equally as great as the rest. I'm also thinking about the ads they run at movie theatres before the main show... those "Believe" ads that they have seemed to share a common theme of supporting your Canadian athletes; very patriotic, very Canadian :)

As I stood in the crowd, I was filled with a certain warmness as excitement of the torch getting closer to the stage got a hold of everyone's attention and the noise from parking lot in front of Sushi Train got louder and louder. I looked around and I see Winnipeg all around me: different nationalities joining as one, calling Winnipeg their home and now together in the cold (actually it was only -21 that evening) to cheer for the torch coming, to cheer for Canada winning. What a night to remember!