In the wake of Michael Jackson's death, the [usual for a celebrity of his calibre] cavalcade of
tribute programming is flashing on the TV.
I've heard more about Motown and Detroit in the last 48 hours than perhaps the last year, save the near-
daily news updates about the challenges faced by the U.S. auto industry.
With all this talk about Motown, and also thanks to a recent refresher course in online search techniques, this week I stumbled upon a
handful of blogs mentioning a lengthy promotional video created in Detroit for the city's failed Olympic bid for the
1968 Summer Olympic Games.
I first heard about Detroit's Olympic aspirations while connecting on flights to and from Beijing last summer. Must admit, asked myself "for the summer Games, or winter?"
As pointed out by
http://www.autoblog.com/ in their
June 15 post, this
summer Olympic bid film fails on several fronts. In addition to leaving out any mention of the Motown music industry, there are some surprising (albeit indicative of the era in which it was filmed) elements that were intended to showcase the city's diversity (unfortunately, shifted into an incorrect gear a time or two).
Another manner in which
this film backfired: It is just plain boring!
C'mon! Even
President Kennedy (around the 15 minute mark in
the film) looks bored out of his mind reading a prepared statement to the voting members at the
IOC Session. His gruff closing "thank you" is perhaps telling of where the bid fit in his list of priorities.
I expect members of the
International Olympic Committee selection team for 1968 kept copies of this film on the ready in case of acute insomnia. The narration does not at all convey whatever "excitement" the city had for hosting the Games. Even newsreels of earlier times, whether
true or
fictional, had more pep. I'm anxious to find a copy of Mexico City's Olympic bid film for a comparison.
Fortunately, in spite of losing to Mexico's capital for the 1968 Olympic duties, some of Detroit's hometown auto brands did go on to sponsor the Olympic Movement in gigantic ways. I still remember spotting the auto industry
Olympic ads during the 1980s.
During the summer of 1989, while volunteering for the
U.S. Olympic Festival coming to Oklahoma City, I was part of a team of 100 or so drivers who created an Olympic photo opp involving 100 new cars from the
General Motors plant in OKC (one of many P.R. moves learned in my pre-public relations career days). We parked 100 cars -- each clad with "OLYMPIC" Oklahoma license plates -- in the car plant's parking lot to arrange an "OK89" logo visible from local news helicopters.
GM also sponsored the Olympics (as do other
import car brands) throughout the last several years, until they nixed global sponsorship (again, back to
http://www.autoblog.com/).
Except by living vicariously through
Michael Moore's great
documentary films (
new release on Oct. 2, the same day of the
IOC vote for 2016),
KISS songs (which reminds me, check out the
REAL "Rock City," a former Edelman client of mine, here),
Eminem's big screen debut (yo!), a
popular Harrison Ford murder mystery film, and aforementioned
Michael Jackson videos, I've only experienced Detroit via the city's modern airport -- there's no better spot for a pre-flight margarita than Detroit's vast
international terminal (though the south of the border restaurant in
LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal gives DTW a run for it's money). I do hope to explore Detroit's architecture and cultural hubs -- some mentioned in the Olympic bid film -- and
visit Detroit in the future.
Would like to think Detroit's non-selection as the first Great Lakes candidate will only contribute to
Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid success. Fortunately, the
Chicago 2016 Olympic bid videos feature a bit more excitement and drive (as does
President Obama's pitch video for the bid)!
(photo cropped from image similar to one at http://olympianartifacts.com/ and via pages of "The Perlow Guide to Olympic Bid Pins")
During the next few days, it's safe to anticipate a deluge of Olympic bid coverage and buzz. I predict that some media outlets will even quote Olympic industry experts and polls and GamesBids.com, InsideTheGames (cast a vote on the right side of home page online) and/or Around The Rings, which each have good info on the quest for 2016 and other future Olympic bids.
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