With the Paralympics now under way, I was reflecting on the day it all started in earnest, the day the Olympics came to our neighbourhood – and to within an hour’s travelling of 95% of the population – the Olympic Torch Relay.
We all dutifully lined up to catch a glimpse of the torch. There was quite a buzz and a sense of expectation.
And a lot of people and vehicles which preceded the torchbearer.
Some of them got a big cheer, like the police on motorbikes doing high fives with the crowds.
The biggest cheer of all went to the bloke doing some ambush ‘anti-marketing’ on an adapted Barclays bike.
I almost missed the bloke with the torch. At first I thought it was one of the rather fit looking people dressed in grey.
Until I glimpsed the bloke dressed in white, holding the torch.
The three presenting partners all did a good job in helping to whip up enthusiasm.
I noticed Samsung’s bright blue clappy things and very high tech bus.
Coke had the sexiest mobile disco and best merchandise.
Lloyds had bouncy stilts but rather lame streamer things.
But the medal positions were as follows:
Bronze to Samsung: glitzy and bright but vapid, running on empty
Silver to Coke: unseemly queue for their giveaway product, trying too hard
Gold to Lloyds: unfancied runner, won by being less sales-y and more low key (this is the Olympics after all) and having the best bus (retro, full of character) and for not having ‘for the journey’ everywhere.
See what they didn’t do there?
Also from reading about their National School Sports Week and Local Heroes programme, surely the best behind-the-scenes activity.
Shame we didn’t really know anything about the torchbearers. Must have been an amazing experience for them. Lots of details about them missing on the website.
Good effort all round, though.
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