BBC Olympic Promos

Continuing our obsession with all things Olympics, today Keith and I were discussing the BBC Olympic promos, which go a long way to get you hyped up and excited for two weeks, if only because of the fact that they play constantly and the Beeb is probably your sole source of Olympic coverage if you're in the UK (unlike here, where I am splitting my viewing between CTV, Sportsnet, TSN, and sometimes, when I can control my gag reflex against the over-patriotism of American coverage, NBC). BBC do an amazing job of it too - they use the red button interactive function to dedicate a handful (around 5, maybe?) separate channel feeds to the Olympics, allowing you to choose between five different sports at a time, meaning you rarely miss out on anything live just because they choose to broadcast a more popular sport on the main BBC1 channel. If there aren't that many live events going on at the same time, then they show taped coverage from earlier on in the day from a loop. So there is no need to go trying to PVR anything, or plan ahead, etc etc.

There have been 3 Olympics, counting summer and winter, while I was in the UK (yes I am counting the current one because I am pretending I am still there). The BBC promos try to incorporate images of the sports with images from each particular city. They are quite good so I'm attaching the youtube videos:

1) Beijing 2008

May's critique
PROS
- uses a Chinese myth (Journey to the West, or Suen Ng Hung in bad pinyin) that I like
- incorporates the sports throughout the monkey's adventures in an imaginative way
- a good blend of sports promotion with culture promotion
CONS
- hate the music
- monkey is ugly
- pig is ugly
- monsters are ugly
- why'd they draw everything so ugly? Pigs and monkeys are my favourite cartoon animals for their cuteness and they are not cute here

2) Vancouver 2010
 

May's critique
PROS
- love the music
- love the incorporation of sports. Really smooth transitions.
- love the bear
- love how it captures Vancouver with its emphasis on nature, wilderness, and First Nations
- love it ends with curling!!! does any country that doesn't have a curling contender even know what curling is???
CONS
- none i love this one it got me super hyped everytime i saw it

(although slightly annoyed by the inuksuks still, there just weren't ANY in Vancouver before it was chosen as an Olympic logo and now gimmicky-ly there are random ones pretending to be historical all over the place and tons of tat in gift shops. I believe the Olympic Committee's defense was that these aren't just Vancouver's games, they are CANADA's)

3) London 2012

May's critique
CONS
- not as creative, is it? almost kinda boring? and it's even the longest one? so you made the longest one the most boring one?
- the backdrops of London make it look kinda ugly (which it is)
PROS
- the backdrops of London make it look kinda ugly (which it is)
- the backdrops of the countryside make it look kinda pretty (which it is), while still addressing that some of the places, like the docks, and the buildings with cranes on them look really industrial (which it is)
- includes a train! I don't think anything is more London to me than the predominance of TRAINS in our lives.
- tons of iconic buildings in London featured, without resorting to shots of Big Ben and Tower Bridge. Especially like the gymnastics girl going over Millenium Bridge in front of Tate Modern.

Overwhelming favourite: the Vancouver one! woooooo!!!