For athletes, the Olympics are about the gold. For London organizers, the Olympics are about the pink, the purple and the orange — colors that will give the 2012 Games an immediately recognizable look.
Cities, towns and hamlets all over Britain are getting ready for their once-in-a-lifetime TV close-ups.
Take Mole Valley, a community of 80,000 near London that is hosting the Olympic cycling road race. It has asked residents to plant dahlias, petunias and sunflowers in Olympic-approved shades so when the riders swish past on July 28 and July 29, television viewers will be left seeing swishes of pink, purple and orange.
Photo: AFP
It’s not an accident: Making Britain memorable is considered critical to the long-term success of the Games.
“What will people be reminded of when they pull out the T-shirt, the pin?” Greenwich University marketing department professor Peter Vlachos asked. “Will they remember London or the Olympics?”
Work is being done now in hopes that viewers fondly remember the UK and not just the sports. Britain’s leaders will spend £9.3 billion (US$14.6 billion) on the Games, but hope that tourism and outside investments will repay billions in revenue over time.
A barge carrying huge Olympic rings sailed down the Thames on Tuesday to mark 150 days to go until the Games, floating beneath historic Tower Bridge.
London’s look is predominantly pink, aqua blue, yellow, purple and green — big colors in shards that slash at the edges of Olympic banners. Local neighborhoods need only consult organizers’ “Look Book” to get ideas — and purchase materials — to festoon their buildings in Games-approved decor.
“The people who are running these things and their paymasters and mistresses have convinced themselves that you hold these things to sell yourselves to the world,” said David Goldblatt, who wrote How to Watch the Olympics, with co-author Johnny Acton.
This is not an idea unique to London. Hollywood-conscious Los Angeles recognized in 1932 that the Games offered a platform for selling its image as the capital of glitz and sun. Organizers planted palm trees along Wilshire Boulevard, making it seem bigger, more stately — a feel that is readily identifiable as Californian.
“If people are going to take pictures, you’ve got to dress the set,” Goldblatt said. “The genius of Los Angeles is that they realized it.”
Then Los Angeles supplied the cast — having Hollywood stars appear at the Olympic Village. Screen idols like Mary Pickford hosted parties. The Marx Brothers went to athletics events. Movie mogul Louis B. Mayer had athletes over for coffee.
Although it’s a world away from Los Angeles, cycling venue Mole Valley is beside itself with excitement, planning British street parties, contests for kids, welcome centers for tourists.
“The Games will put Surrey on the map,” said Denise Saliagopoulos of the Surrey County Council.
In a separate move, Olympic organizers are also working to keep out any advertisers trying to sneak in a publicity stunt, imposing strict advertising regulations along the route to protect Olympic sponsors from unwanted competition.
However, that doesn’t mean organizers won’t go to great lengths to make sure sites hosting the Games look just so.
The marathon route was originally supposed to go through gritty areas in east London where the Olympic Park is located. However, mindful of television images, organizers rerouted the race so it now passes classic London landmarks.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
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