I must admit, I was initially not the biggest fan of the Olympics being hosted in London. In fact I was entirely against it and grumbled about it whenever I saw anything in relation to the almighty London 2012.
I was convinced it would end up a total disaster; we've put so much pressure on our national athletes (and we've already fallen short at every sporting hurdle leading up to the Olympics this summer) that a disappointing finish for Team GB would be unbelievably anti-climatic, and our transport system, barely able to withstand the force of us Londoners on an uneventful day to/from work, will probably implode under the force of an estimated one million more visitors every day. But in the build up to the main event (less than a week left to go) I've felt an odd little tingle of excitement about what's to come.
I hold the advertising campaigns surrounding London 2012 entirely responsible.
I've found myself particularly taken by the Adidas, 'Take The Stage' campaign. I was first made aware of it when an old classmate of mine was featured as the 'Pride of Southwark'. When the Take The Stage campaign reached our television screens it was with a slightly confusing but thoroughly compelling advert featuring a selection of the British athletes that we are hopeful will achieve gold:
In the last few weeks the individual athlete features have been released which not only provided context for some of the shots from the original advert but brought a whole new dimension and personality to the campaign. The adverts are contemporary, expertly edited and the use of Rustie's 'After Light' as a backing track neatly ties up the campaign as a current and compelling piece of marketing:
