The Olympic Games “PR Nightmare”
It ain’t a nightmare, I exaggerated it to highlight the massive efforts to keep the Olympic Games going smoothly. While managing the Olympic Games is a dream to most, some will be thankful they have nothing to do with it. It’s, nevertheless, an honor should anyone get that far. To have the words “Olympic Games” flashed across your portfolio, you can almost be sure your future is secured. If you don’t mess it up post-games that is.
I wonder when does the PR begin for the various hosts over the years. From the time they decide to throw in their bid? From the day they are officiated to host the Olympic Games? Truth be told, even when events are unleashed amid the games, the PR team behind Olympics Beijing must be suppressing their nerves. For, the PR required now is even tighter than it was needed before the games opened.
First, the blue screen of death (I didn’t know this term until a friend shared the story with me) appeared during the opening ceremony of Olympic Games. While this remained primarily a tech issue, to have such a technical glitch before the eyes of the world is still going to create a negative talking point. Obviously, it has sparked off the conversation in the prominent sites I linked, isn’t it? How will it impact Windows as the world’s most widely used operating system? Will this incident pose an indirect hit on Lenovo’s image, even if the crippled CPU isn’t from Lenovo but some other manufacturers?
Another story was quickly shared, of how Olympic screensavers may potentially contain malwares. Thankfully, I am usually not a big fan of screensavers. However, the eventual “investigation” reduced greatly the possibility and I am sure many of those who downloaded will go phewwwwwww. Again, negative stories with intentions more malicious than trojans themselves. As a fair shot, this negativity has already begun before the opening.
Latest in the internet, Youtube has pulled out a video upon the notice of IOC. Ironically, it made its way into Vimeo and now I wonder what can IOC do about that. The video featured Free Tibet propaganda and was beamed onto the wall of the Chinese Consulate in NYC. This article is not here to discuss if China’s policy towards Tibet is right or wrong, but this latest incident added on to the various factors surrounding Olympic Beijing. Heck, which Olympic Games in history has not been clouded with controversies? If only my dear friend Kloudiia can have her message across…
You can’t insert just anyone to manage all these negavities even if you boast your professorship accreditation. The choice of people in this team can potentially become a talking point whipping back at the IOC as much.
Too many commercial PR practitioners will eventually lead the Olympic Games into a battle of the brands. At this point, I am glad to see commercial PR practitioners being sidelined to manage their own clients and the respective events of commercial interest. That’s about it, and I hope it stays this way. Considering the nature of the Olympic Games, the last thing we hope to see is a commercialized Olympic. The millions of dollars involved in broadcast and advertising is already paving the way towards that direction.
Having said that, political PR practitioners should be kept faraway. I meant, those who represent, monitor and manage PR activities for government agencies and political figures. Try putting a whole bulk of these people in, I bet the first question would be - is Olympic Beijing a (political) propaganda machine?
Will China’s flag still fly high after the games have ended? That remains to be seen.
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EDISON ROWAN LEE
Ed savors the building of conversations and always prospecting the inception of values beyond the usual puffery.
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Hi Ed
All pretty horrible, but as they say… technical issues do happen. I’m not sure these three are “sticky”. One that will be harder for people to forget is replacing Yang Peiyi (who signs Hymn to the Motherland) with Lin Miaoke, because Peiyi wasn’t cute enough… when actually she’s cute as a button. I think that one is scratching against raw nerves all around the world. Ouch!
=p M
[Reply]
Oh… a little about social media at the Olympics that you might enjoy here:
http://www.thesocialpath.com/2008/08/blogging-olympi.html
Apparently the “free speech” issue is a bit of a PR nightmare too.
=) M
[Reply]
Hi Marc, thanks for sharing some notes there. Just last night, my network dinner was discussing about the replacement and the subsequent impact on what message we are sending around to the children all over the world.
I believe a great deal of problem with this “free speech” issue is when access is given, the various bloggers tend to drift towards discussing about China’s political issues rather than the Olympic Games proper. This directly hits the amount of publicity they can realistically adopt through social media.
I was aware of the Lenovo’s Voice of the Summer Games campaign for example, interestingly, the bloggers are only contained within a few countries which already have various athletes blogging on Lenovo’s site. Many countries are “left out” and with such a campaign consisting majorly of western countries, it is only expected that China will be uptight and cautious about them.
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