Swinging For The Olympics

Not long left now. Only 12 days until the Opening Ceremony of the greatest show on earth. As a forewarning, this could be an exclusively Olympic zone for two-three weeks in August. I enjoy them a lot, and intend to live on Chinese time throughout.

The TV companies are ramping up their coverage of the Games already. Here in Ireland RTE are running an excellent documentary series on our athlete heading over there - well worth checking out. Across the pond, the BBC will have their usual excellent coverage, the ad for which was released this week. Take a look.

The ad is based on the 70's TV show, Monkey. It in turn, though Japanese, was the story of a Chinese folk tale from the 16th Century, hence the Beijing link. Now, I never got into it when it was on Saturday mornings so I may be biased, but I don't get the Monkey/Olympics link.

As a piece of animation it's lovely. Don't get me wrong. Technically the piece is flawless. However, while I may be in the minority, I do not understand the thinking behind using this TV show to advertise the games.

There are celeb links to the piece. The score for it is composed by Damon Albarn from Blur and Gorillaz. Now, he's also the brains of a stage version of the show which would no doubt see increased business as a result of the Monkey nostalgia, though I'd never be one to suggest that the BBC are getting a famous name to promote the Olympics in return for some fringe benefits for him...

I'd love someone to explain the thinking behind this to me. Why is Monkey a better choice than, say, athletes running over the Great Wall Of China or RTE's more traditional offering. (Can't find a link to that, but I like this news story about Olympic preparations on rte.ie)

So, if anyone out there can convince me I'm wrong about the Monkey link I'd love to hear from you. I hope that this is the only fault I have with this year's Olympics, but if I do have an issue, then I shall air my grievences here. Let the (monkey) Games begin...