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Celebrate Humanity: Cultural Citizenship and the Global Branding of ‘Multiculturalism’

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The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies

Abstract

In 2000, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) launched Celebrate Humanity, its first-ever global branding campaign. Created by world-renowned advertising agency TBWA\Chiat\Day with the explicit goal of communicating ‘the extraordinary and inspiring values embodied within the Olympic Movement’, the campaign aired worldwide in more than 200 countries during the lead-up to that year’s Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, and would later be reworked for use during the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, Greece, the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, and so on.2 During its unveiling at the 2000 Sport Summit in New York, Michael R. Payne, then-Director of Marketing for the IOC, characterised the $150 million campaign as communicating to viewers ‘traditional Olympic ideals the athletes exhibit when they compete in the Olympic venues: excellence in oneself, respect for one another, balance between body and mind, fair play, and, of course, joy in effort’.3

The Olympic Promotional Campaign communicates the extraordinary and inspiring values embodied within the Olympic Movement. It tells real stories of the remarkable perseverance, honor, goodness, heroism, and unity demonstrated during the Olympic Games. The campaign rejoices in, and invites the world to celebrate, these values.

Olympics 2000 Promotional Programme, Information Manual

365 days a year, the true spirit is demonstrated by: our Worldwide Corporate Sponsors. Because our athletes can’t run, jump, or swim until they’re fed, housed, and trained. For that, we – and everyone who loves the Games – owe them our deepest gratitude.

Jacques Rogge, President, International Olympic Committee, 2004

The authors thank Stephen Wagg and Helen Lenskyj for their editorial guidance during the writing of this chapter. Special thanks to the International Olympic Committee’s Marketing Division (Lausanne, Switzerland) for providing us with a copy of the original 2000 promotional programme kit. This chapter significantly updates arguments first made in Giardina and Metz, ‘Celebrating Humanity: Olympic Marketing and the Homogenization of Multiculturalism’.

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Authors
  1. Michael D. Giardina
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  2. Jennifer L. Metz
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  3. Kyle S. Bunds
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Canada

    Helen Jefferson Lenskyj

  2. Leeds Metropolitan University, UK

    Stephen Wagg

Copyright information

© 2012 Michael D. Giardina, Jennifer L. Metz and Kyle S. Bunds

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Giardina, M.D., Metz, J.L., Bunds, K.S. (2012). Celebrate Humanity: Cultural Citizenship and the Global Branding of ‘Multiculturalism’. In: Lenskyj, H.J., Wagg, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230367463_22

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