Howcroft: From Russia with big brands
In his first dispatch from Sochi Russel Howcroft reflects on how familiar brands make you feel at home, even at the top of a Russian mountain.
The objective of the Sochi Winter Olympics was made clear in the speech given by the President of the Sochi organising committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, at the Opening Ceremony. These games are about brand Russia.
Yes, at the various facilities there is still landscaping going on. Our hotel was still being completed upon arrival, the plumbing is a little dodgy, there are no coat hangers in the cupboard and the lift shakes as you descend, but these little things are bound to happen when you are embarking on the total creation of an Olympic site over the course of a mere seven years.
Ya gotta love Russel.
Here he is at one of the biggest sporting events in the world and he slips in a bit about global brands and how they connect the Russians to the rest of the world.
I dunno. Call me old fashioned or whatever, but if I was at Sochi, how global brands fit into international relations is the last thing I’d have thought of.
Still…I do enjoy Russel’s enthusiasm.
‘Brands, of course, play a role in the idea of promoting good values. Coke, Samsung, Omega, P&G, McDonald’s and others are all here in force.’
We’re very different people, Russel.
I’d like a holiday from creepy mass-killers like Coke and McDonalds. I don’t want them stalking me around the world.
You can take the boy out of Ad Land…