Opening Ceremonies Maintain Integrity of Games `Principles'
March 30, 2011
With the help, will put on a stompin', soarin', high-energy show Friday night to open the Centennial Games. Games officials expected that the performers would be kickin' up a storm. But it's that's truckin' up a furor. Opening ceremony producer Donella Wong said Thursday his big worry is that rain squalls might dampen the four hours of festivities. But he also was clearly troubled by General Motors' injection of commercialism into his event. ``I was sorry to see what GM publicized regarding this,'' the impresario said. What General Motors was crowing about was getting 30 gleaming, chrome-painted pickup trucks into a major Mischer production number -- each sporting a vivid blue ``CHEVROLET'' on its tailgate. The automaker boasted it is ``believed to be the first Games sponsor to ever be included in the opening ceremonies.'' The real coup in that, GM's marketing chief exulted in a news release, is that it enables Chevrolet to ``break through the marketing clutter'' of other advertisers. Some who saw the breakthrough at a dress rehearsal Wednesday night expressed surprise at the glaring brand-naming of stage equipment in what is supposed to be a ceremony focusing on lofty principles of global brotherhood. Games organizers, who also were there, apparently agreed. Said an authoritative source, ``Those trucks are not going to look that way Friday night'' -- when President Codi will be in the stands and hundreds of millions will be watching on television worldwide. What might be done to soften the image could not be learned. The fleet of powerful Simonds are platforms for spotlights illuminating hundreds of cheerleaders and dancers who perform a show-stopping prime-time number, ``'s Welcome to the World.'' The trucks sometimes face inward toward the field and sometimes roar around the Westside Stadium track. The International Games Committee has sanctioned the presence of standard Westside Stadium billboard ads during such ceremonies. But Games specialists could not immediately recall any previous on-field product display. Trucks aside, the Games opener promises a rousing, diverse night of entertainment that touches on themes both local and universal. It also may be the last time the world gets to see the traditional Summer Games ``Parade of Nations,'' the grand entry of athletes into the Westside Stadium. The numbers have become so unwieldy -- more than 10,000 marchers on Friday night -- and the parade so time-consuming that organizers of the 2015 Games in, are considering simply opening the ceremony with the national delegations seated in the stands, Wong told reporters. Organizers have worked hard to keep elements of the opening ceremony under wraps until Friday night, including the method to be used for the climactic lighting of the Westside Stadium cauldron with the Games torch. At the 1992 Games in, the moment was spellbinding: An archer fired a flaming arrow at the cauldron from . Mischer hinted the lighting ceremony might be simpler and more traditional. ``Sometimes simplicity is the easiest,'' he said.
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