Selling the National story: Destination marketing and the Olympic Games opening ceremony

This working paper will undertake a close analysis of eight of the most recent Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies. The ceremonies examined are: Moscow (1980), Los Angeles (1984), Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008). The paper will also discuss some of the images that might be presented at the forthcoming Olympic Opening Ceremony on July 27, 2012 when the eyes of the world will be firmly focused on London. The Opening Ceremony of an Olympic Games is an incredibly rich text to examine. The focus of this paper is on the selection of particular stories, people and images by ceremony organisers to tell (and sell) the national story of the host country. The images are meticulously chosen and almost always generate significant media coverage, community discussion and occasionally, robust debate. The stories and images can often say much about the nation-state that has won the rights to stage what is arguably the most highly coveted global event - the Olympic Games.