Hosting the Olympic Games in was a wonderful opportunity for Britain to advertise for its position as a hub in the global leisure economy. The Games Opening Ceremony, which was watched by millions of viewers nationwide and billions worldwide, whether on television or via digital applications, presented a great opportunity for the mediatisation of British culture in ways appealing to domestic and global consumers.
A film director, producer, screenwriter and theatre director with international recognition, Danny Boyle was well-positioned to create a show that both conformed to Olympic ethos and presented evolving images of British cultural and technological contributions down to the digital age.
While Danny Boyle featured the network of signs surrounding consumers β from emblematic tourist hotspots to British musical and cinematographic hits β, he also suggested personal and collective re-appropriations of products to counter the commodification of goods. Thus he chose to present products crafted by human labour as symbols β rather than fetishes β for human values such as solidarity, social rights and the promotion of ethnic diversity. The use of digital technology in the show was effective to spread those values, presented as part of British nation-building, across cultural borders.
The Games Opening Ceremony, which was watched by million viewers on television worldwide, presented a great opportunity for the mediatisation of British culture in ways appealing to domestic and global consumers. The winning, planning, delivery and legacy of the Olympic Games called upon all the qualities that make the UK stand out in the global economy.
Profits were also expected, though reports vary as to how much was actually generated in terms of money and return on investment. How shall this Olympic spirit endure in a post-modern society in which gifts may lose some of their original symbolic value as part of the marketing process? We argue that the London Olympic Games go some lengths to retrieve the bonding value of the Olympic Games in the key event of the opening ceremony which celebrates the moment when the host country receives the Olympic gift and reciprocates it by staging its own contributions to global culture.
