Olympics Advertisements

The advertising for the Vancouver 2010 Spring (WINTER) Olympics was brilliant from many of the sponsors.

Particularly liked the musical one ending on a hockey rink; "Let Them Know ... Who's ... Game ... They're Playing!" Lots of fiddle music, amateurs playing street hockey for fun, crowds in stands, faces painted, Canada gear on, screaming...

Who'd have thunk that an advertisement showing ecstatic crowds *all* in colours and face paint would, in fact, be the most accurate depiction of the whole of Vancouver?!? The whole of Canada even. Incredible to experience, says this Olympic skeptic.

The talking cars were sometimes clever but seemed either lacking je ne sais quoi or having a little too much voice acting.

CTV's "I Believe" song was a great hit: I liked all of the versions I heard (not all 200+). Preferred the orchestral or symphonic versions sans vocalist.

And the winner is The Bay, aka HBC. Their Canada-emblazoned gear drew line-ups before the store opened and we saw people inside still at midnight.

That gear was *the* item of the games. Since those mascots were so universally horrible, it's fitting that they should've been trampled in the stampede of unprecedented scale to buy Canada gear.

Hell, I'll gladly buy an athlete's red, white, and black toque if anyone knows where to get one!

I doubt HBC imagined in their wildest marketing wet dreams that their items (like the mittens) would be such a hit. Apparently they shipped all stock from across the country to the downtown Vancouver store, the demand was so great here.

Yay Canada!