The London Olympic Opening Ceremony PR Challenge

Can London wow with the Olympic Opening Ceremony? (Illustration © unreez – Fotolia.com)

There’s a lot at stake for London today: to match, and even surpass, the Olympic Opening Ceremony standards set by Beijing in 2008. And although Britain spent over over £27m ($42.8-million) to produce its “Isles of Wonder”, with only 13 hours before the start today, the tickets weren’t sold out.

This doesn’t mean that the show will not wow global audiences. No other Olympic Ceremony opened with 70 sheep, 12 horses, 10 chickens and nine geese – Danny Boyle’s attempt to encapsulate the spirit of the nation and to reflect England’s heritage.

Sure, farm animals on a real meadow are not the sole protagonists of the multi-million show. There are over 10,000 volunteers involved in a performance that will also feature Daniel Craig as James Bond, and British icon Paul McCartney singing along.

To fully reflect true British heritage, Boyle has also drawn from pop culture, literature and music. Spectators will also see characters from British classics like “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” “Harry Potter” and “Mary Poppins.”

So far, despite the power of the social media, and despite the fact that many people have already attended dressed rehearsal shows, details about the Olympic Ceremony schedule remain secret. So remains the identity of the person who will light the Olympic cauldron in a few hours. But the true challenge of the Opening Ceremony is to raise up to expectations.

In 2008, Beijing raised the bar for Olympic Opening Ceremony shows. Britain wants to be different, but can it impress? And who can match Li Ning mind-boggling light of the torch? Because if Britain fails to impress with the opening show, Boyle’s “Isles of Wonder” will turn into a massive PR fail. London will never hear the end of it. This highly anticipated show will make history, one way or another.

London raised eyebrows introducing troops to bolster security at the games. The Olympic Opening Ceremony needs to be a success, to turn the media focus from some of the negatives that already labelled London 2012 as an “Olympic circus.”

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