On Sat, 1 Jun 2013 00:44:20 +0100, "Alex W."
wrote:

On Thu, 30 May 2013 21:12:16 -0700, Fidem Turbare, the
non-existent atheist goddess wrote:

On Fri, 31 May 2013 00:07:03 +0100
"Alex W." wrote:
On Thu, 30 May 2013 10:01:10 -0500, Attila Iskander wrote:



We need to spend more time going to the Moon or Mars, than we do
building sports stadiums for business entities.

... or funding the Olympic boondoggle every four years....

Olympics are an example of wasting tax revenues on a giant party. The
event should be privately funded, and have to apply for and conform to
permits like many other major events.

I see your point, but I find myself in two minds over this.
Call me perverse, but as a viewer I find it immensely
refreshing to watch a sporting event that is not saturated
in advertising, much of it by highly inappropriate firms.
There is already a serious amount of advertising associated
with the Olympic Games, but at least inside the stadiums we
don't have to see athletes competing in kit praising
fast-food franchises, sugary snacks or alcohol.

Point of dissent:

On American and Canadian networks, advertising runs riot during all
sporting events. The athletes themselves are obviously sponsored by
the major sporting goods companies, so there's complete focus on the
Nike swoosh and the Adidas 3-stripe for the duration of any given
event.

If you're following the sport, you end up tuning out the advertising.
My 12 year old son pointed out that banners along the edges of soccer
pitches are electronically changed as the game goes on, and I never
even noticed that.

I'm totally fine with advertising: in fact, great ads are often far
more memorable than the sporting events themselves.

Finally, didn't you also want Greece to be the permanent home of the
Olympics? Greece? Home of souvlaki, endless bakeries (and not even the
French can beat the magnificence of a first-rate zaharoplasteion),
Ouzo, Retsina, and Metaxa?

Pfft. Our entire lives revolve around advertising and marketing. The
question is... to what degree can it be subverted into individual
tastes?

Cheers,
Dreamer
AA 2306