Big games, big branding.

I spent much of the long weekend Snuggie'd on the couch, cider in paw, immersed in moguls, short track, biathlon and all the other wonderfully weird spandexy sports that make up the winter Olympics. How very cultured and seasonal of me, no? In other news, I have decided that I am interested in giving ski jumping a whirl, seeing as my knees are already shot. Is this something I can try out for funsies at Devil's Head? I think there's a future for me as a gold medalist here. And, I think I'll move to/jump for Australia, since you seem to be able to move around and join whatever team you like, and per my count, they tend to have the slickest outfits. And I would like to hang out with Dale Begg-Smith. Just saying.

In discussing the Super Bowl, I mentioned the question of big branding messaging as opposed to promotional or call-to-action. Beautiful stuff for the Olympics thus far, but it seems that the majority of the Olympic ad spend has been of a similar vein. Abstract big branding with no promotional element, no call to action.

Striking work for GE, who seem to have pumped tons of cash into creative as well as TRPs. Panasonic Toughbook, Procter and Gamble, even car companies. It's refreshing to see the spend, but kind of strange to see the execution, no? In the case of GE and Toughbook, are these even consumer-facing products or objectives? And P&G with no product push makes me toss and turn at night. So, so very strange. As with the Super Bowl, the Olympics are a really fantastic stage to test some consumer interaction and blow it up creatively. I'm kind of surprised that I've yet to see it. Perhaps I'm jaded from working on CPG for too long, but I'm curious as to how these companies are measuring Olympic success. Sales seem too far-removed.

I have yet to find a channel holding all the Olympic spots - in fact, I'm having a heck of a time finding a lot of these spots in general, so I apologize for the lack of links/examples. Please let me know if you know where they're hiding. PS, that's another fail on the part of these advertisers. If you're going to be interesting, help me help you spread your content. Sigh.

Must go, the snowboard-cross people are going four at a time and taking each other out left and right. Must. Watch. I'll leave you with my favorite spot thus far: The Human Chain, another standard yet awesome product of Nike W+K. Happy Olympics, and happy big branding to you!