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.
