The Olympic Buzz

All of China is abuzz about the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How could China not be? How could anyone who visits China not catch the Beijing Olympics fever? On a rainy afternoon in early July 08, there was a mob of tourists and locals around the Olympic Green area where the National Stadium, Aquatic Center and Olympic Village are. Marketing and advertising has helped propel the buzz (though national and cultural pride of hosting the Olympics truly drives the excitement).

Whoever the marketing and advertising gurus are for the Olympics - my hats off. Advertisements for the Olympics appear everywhere. The Olympics get visibility on top of highrise buildings, in airports in China, banks, retail stores, along streets and at the tourist attractions.

But it's not the omnipresent advertisements that are impressive; rather, it's the collaborative creative advertisements with companies like Adidas. Take a look at the photo galleries of the billboards. The Beijing Olympic advertisements are slick, ultra sexy and sporty and inspire you to take up a sport and try out for the 2012 Olympics. The taglines on these billboards play on words: "Anything is Possible" and "Impossible is Nothing." At the very least, we'll be watching the Olympics.

Olympics Mascots

The FUWA has been adopted by China as the official mascot for the Olympics. The FUWA translates into "Friendlies" and are "good luck" figurines. There are five fuwa and each one assumes a color of the Olympic rings and they represent some of the most popular animals in China as well as the Olympic flame. These fuwa are enormously popular in China and can be seen everyhwere for sale.

Official Beijing Olympics Stores

Olympic stores are present everywhere in Beijing as well. There's even an Olympics store at the Hong Kong International Airport. These Olypmics stores sell all kinds of gear: clothes, sport bags, sunglasses, jewelery and protected and sealed collector's items such as tea pot and mug sets, etc. The clothes they sell are good quality and Adidas has its footprints in a lot of the Olympics gear. The Olympics flagship store is in the Wangfujing shopping area.

A Bit of Olympics Trivia

The Olympic Flame is always lit in Olympia, Greece and is transported by runners to the host country.

The Olympic Rings is the Olympics' most recognized symbol and the intertwined rings represents the earth's continents. The colors of the rings against a white flag incorporates the colors of all nations.

Beijing's official Olympic logo is a stylized calligraphic character known as jing, which means capital, or the host city of the olympics.