”Our responsibility is to stage a great Games for the athletes of theworld – A Games that inspires young people and heralds a new era for community development linked to sport, and maximises the social, economic and environmental benefits of the 2012 Games for future generations”
This is LOCOG’s vision statement for legacy, summed up in the slogan “Inspire a Generation”
There cannot be anyone in Britain who witnessed the amazing scenes last night who does not want this vision to be realised and to see the magnificent combination of skill, dedication and humility shown by the athletes become a central statement of what defines a modern Britain.
Can there be a more powerful contrast in our celebrity obsessed world than authentic role models like Ennis, Wiggins, Rutherford and Farah (the list goes on) and the shoddy products of Big Brother, X-Factor, TOWIE, the Apprentice etc.? Dare I add certain Premiership footballers to that list?
The old saying ‘follow the money’ is the key.
Britain’s distorted version of talent exists because the media and brands have created it and, for them at least, it is lucrative. The audience figures tell us it’s popular and so we get more of it, to the exclusion of other forms of endeavour.
But is that the only thing that can ever be popular?
Last night’s audience figures were amazing, 17.1m watched Mo Farah win gold, and 16.3m saw Jess Ennis’ triumph.
Obviously these kind of audiences are as extraordinary as the events themselves and the Olympic comedown period will be horrible.
But how pale, how thin will the next contrived TV talent show seem after what the nation has experienced in just a few days?
This is the challenge and the opportunity for the media and for the brands that support and benefit from it.
It is now in their hands not LOCOG’s or the Government’s to inspire a generation and to find a way to channel that raw emotion of admiration and inspiration into genuine talent and achievement.
Whoever can turn the energy and passion of 17.1m people roaring at their TV last night into new programme formats and content that creates lasting audiences and revenue deserves to clean up. There must be a way to do it, I just hope that Simon Cowell isn’t involved.
The other player in this tripartite agreement is you and me. We are the audience for this stuff, we are the market that creates the revenue that pays for Sky’s sponsorship of British cycling.
So if you stood and cheered on our Olympians, stay standing for media and brands which celebrate and invest in achievement and give them the audience they need.
In the words of a tweet I saw earlier today, let’s make TOWIE now stand for The Only Way is Ennis.