Tuesday 19 June 2012

A new sponsor for the olympics?


Like many others, I watched the Olympic torch being carried through our town. It is a remarkable sight, not just the torch, that I’ll probably never see again, but also the massed crowds.
The crowd behaviour leads me to conclude that a new sponsor is needed.
In the past, I guess people just came to see and remember, but now they expect to take pictures and movies with small digital cameras or phones. How do you take a picture with a phone when you are in the middle of a crowd that is five or six deep? Answer you hold your hand up in the air. A brief glance at the attached movie will show all the upheld arms. If you couldn’t see the cameras and phones in those hands, you might think it was a fascist rally.
Bear in mind that the torch business does not just last the few seconds of this clip, not by any means. It goes on for about half an hour or more of various police motorcycles, busses trucks and other hangers on who appear necessary to the action, and come before the small party jogging along with the torch.
The crowd in our case had been there for about half an hour, and this was back when there was actually some sunshine this summer.
The upshot of all this is that the huddled masses have been sweating a little by the time the torch arrives and is greeted by many upheld arms.
Having experienced this phenomenon, in the middle of the crowd, I make a plea that some major manufacturer of underarm deodorants takes on sponsorship of the torch relay and as a publicity venture issues free deodorant to anyone who has a phone or a camera.
I’m sure it would be good for business and would certainly be appreciated by anyone standing in the middle of a crowd of upheld cameras.