January 05, 2002
Great moments in ad placement. Driving home from work today, listening to Opie and Anthony (NY-based syndicated shock-jocks), when a commercial comes on, spoken over lilting piano music by a very sensitive-sounding man:
"In 776 B.C., the Greek states of Elis and Pisa were at war. This was not unusual by any means. What was unusual was this: In honour of the forthcoming Olympic games, both sides agreed to lay down their arms and allow participants to pass through enemy territory unharmed. This became a tradition, and in over 1,000 years of ancient Olympic competition, this sacred truce, known as the ekcheiria, was never violated. We invite the countries of the world to embrace this ancient tradition once more by suspending all hostilities during the Olympic games. If we can stop fighting for 16 days, maybe we can do it forever. The Olympics."
The reasons this type of plea is misguided were covered fairly well back during the pre-Ramadan period. The war against terrorism isn't some random whim of ours, but and attempt to find and stop people who are trying to kill us. Besides, this is the Winter Olympics we're talking about here; I kind of doubt that Al Qaeda, not to mention India, Pakistan, Israel, and the Palestinians, are going to stop whatever they're doing in order to watch some Swedish guy can go sledding down a hill.
But anyway, back to the terrible ad placement: to give you a little background, in between making fun of the stupid and putting naked teens on the air, Opie and Anthony have been loudly and consistently in support of the military action since the beginning, as have most of their guests and on-air callers. So when this Olympic ad was played it was greeted with complete dismissal and derision, and the next half-hour was spent bashing it from every angle. Rather heartening, really.
"In 776 B.C., the Greek states of Elis and Pisa were at war. This was not unusual by any means. What was unusual was this: In honour of the forthcoming Olympic games, both sides agreed to lay down their arms and allow participants to pass through enemy territory unharmed. This became a tradition, and in over 1,000 years of ancient Olympic competition, this sacred truce, known as the ekcheiria, was never violated. We invite the countries of the world to embrace this ancient tradition once more by suspending all hostilities during the Olympic games. If we can stop fighting for 16 days, maybe we can do it forever. The Olympics."
The reasons this type of plea is misguided were covered fairly well back during the pre-Ramadan period. The war against terrorism isn't some random whim of ours, but and attempt to find and stop people who are trying to kill us. Besides, this is the Winter Olympics we're talking about here; I kind of doubt that Al Qaeda, not to mention India, Pakistan, Israel, and the Palestinians, are going to stop whatever they're doing in order to watch some Swedish guy can go sledding down a hill.
But anyway, back to the terrible ad placement: to give you a little background, in between making fun of the stupid and putting naked teens on the air, Opie and Anthony have been loudly and consistently in support of the military action since the beginning, as have most of their guests and on-air callers. So when this Olympic ad was played it was greeted with complete dismissal and derision, and the next half-hour was spent bashing it from every angle. Rather heartening, really.
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