I have thought a great deal about last night's Olympic Opening Ceremony and whether anything can be salvaged from it. It is intensely depressing that such a global event should have been manipulated to a partisan political cause. It was subtle (mostly) and done with great skill, but anyone who has worked in advertising will know how the messages have been encoded into the production.
And at times the imagery was not even subtle, but very blatant.
And even while the ceremony was still continuing a member of the Newsnight review panel identified that it was partisan.
One only has to look at the cock-a-hoop reactions among left-wing commentators to see that they are adopting the ceremony as their own:
(on the subject of the flashmob creation of the CND logo, I thought commercial, religious and political logos were banned from the Olympics? - CND is about as political as you can get, and only supported by a small minority of the population).
So all this is depressing because the one event that should have been political neutral has, in the words of Toby Young, become an advertisement for the Labour Party version of history.
Shame on you Danny Boyle.
Did we campaign against Rupert Murdoch's malign manipulation of impressionable minds only to have it replaced by YOUR corruption of one of our biggest media events?
But anyway. What is the point of complaining when all I have is this disregarded little blog that no-one reads? What can someone as unimportant and disenfranchised as myself do about any of this?
So although I was looking forward to attending the Olympic Games, and had paid £65 for a ticket to see the men's water polo on 6th August, I think the only realistic reaction I can make to last night's propaganda is to tear the ticket up and have nothing more to do with the 2012 Olympics.
And at times the imagery was not even subtle, but very blatant.
And even while the ceremony was still continuing a member of the Newsnight review panel identified that it was partisan.
One only has to look at the cock-a-hoop reactions among left-wing commentators to see that they are adopting the ceremony as their own:
(on the subject of the flashmob creation of the CND logo, I thought commercial, religious and political logos were banned from the Olympics? - CND is about as political as you can get, and only supported by a small minority of the population).
So all this is depressing because the one event that should have been political neutral has, in the words of Toby Young, become an advertisement for the Labour Party version of history.
Shame on you Danny Boyle.
Did we campaign against Rupert Murdoch's malign manipulation of impressionable minds only to have it replaced by YOUR corruption of one of our biggest media events?
But anyway. What is the point of complaining when all I have is this disregarded little blog that no-one reads? What can someone as unimportant and disenfranchised as myself do about any of this?
So although I was looking forward to attending the Olympic Games, and had paid £65 for a ticket to see the men's water polo on 6th August, I think the only realistic reaction I can make to last night's propaganda is to tear the ticket up and have nothing more to do with the 2012 Olympics.
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