Hello, and welcome to our list of the coolest 1996 summer centennial Olympic sites. We are a group of students at Cornell University creating this site as part of a course which studies art and culture on the web. As a final project we were offered the opportunity to choose what site we wished to study and present to our fellow classmates. After extensive research we decided that these were the only Olympic sites worth visiting, after all, we are the experts. :-)
When you search "Olympics" on Yahoo, the result is a huge list of links all somehow related to the summer's most spectacular event. In the spirit of the Net's limitless opportunities for information, the viewer can research any aspect of this year's games from the commercials to the news. The reality is that all this information is highly censored. In order to maintain the Olympics' image of peace and universal unity, the sites all display a utopian, idealistic pseudo-society. The creators of these different sites filter out certain volatile information, mold the events to reflect their own expectations for the Olympics, and commodify the athlete's pure image of sportsmanship and devotion to uphold the Olympics' standards.
IBM sponsors the 1996 Official Centennial Summer Olympic Games Site. In it you can find news on all of the sporting events, countries, and athletes. Unfortunately, you won't find a comprehensive, un-biased account of the happenings in and around the Olympics. Instead of discussing the circumstances and outcomes of the pipe-bombing, IBM chose to ignore the fact that such a tragedy occurred. They did, though, devote several links to the celebration taking place for the re-opening of the Olympic Park. Re-opening? When did it close down? According to IBM, it seems the Olympic committee takes pleasure in closing, repairing, and re-opening perfectly functioning Olympic facilities. Of course, what better way to spend enormous amounts of time, man power, oh and money. Speaking of that greenish paper that manages to creep into all human activities, the Olympics appear to have become a huge advertising campaign. A company such as Pepsi or Budweiser can purchase the idyllic image of the games for a hefty 40 million dollars. The Olympics are now a commodity. So what do we call this - commodification of the public...sports?
In the past few years, the United States has become preoccupied with health, fitness, and exercise. The Olympics is a huge event that celebrates and showcases young men and women who dedicate their whole lives to achieve some sort of athletic prowess. The games offer a meeting ground for all of these athletes from all over the world to compete using only their bodies, unaided by machinery, chemicals, technology, or the money that buys such gadgets. The beauty and the appeal of the Olympics is its purity. Professional sports don't even create the same excitement because they make quite a bit of money playing basketball or football. The Olympians work and participate only for the love of their particular sport; they are supposed to be amateurs. Advertisers are aware of the respect and trust that the public has in sports and, more specifically, the Olympics, so they exploit the image. Every commercial that the public encounters either on television, radio, newspapers, or magazines has some connection to the Summer Olympics. Some advertisers use Olympic athletes to promote their product, others the idea of raw competition, and still others the thirst for winning the gold. A soft drink or a beer does not give most people the same feeling as participating in the Olympics, but the advertisers seem to be portraying that it would in order to sell their product.
The athletes are representing their nations in an international communion for sports, yet the world watches them through the eyes of the advertiser. NBC, because of its great appreciation for the pristine spirit of competition of the Games, has been gracious enough to run almost all the Olympic events instead of regular programming. (By the way, airing a commercial on prime time on NBC during the Olympics costs an average of $400,000.) Since NBC wanted to make all the events available, they omitted boxing, wrestling, but emphasized horse jumping, the all-time Olympic event. Why did horse-jumping gain so much coverage? Well, that's the type of "sport" that appeals to women. Last Olympics' multicast was an expensive embarrassment for NBC. When a network cannot deliver its promised audience, it has to give the advertiser make goods, free air time on another program. NBC had to deliver many make goods last time around, and they did not intend on repeating history. Since all women watch soap operas during the day, why not encourage them to watch sports. Eliminate the bloody, male sports and substitute them with more graceful, feminine sports. Besides, men will watch anything sports-related, even horse jumping. Sadly enough, this thought process has actually led NBC to deliver the promised audience. Advertisers are happy, the network is happy, and the consumer is happy?
A more blatant show of unscrupulous money-making lies in the Commercial link, where you too can advertise in Olympic style. Outside of the stadium where most of the soccer(football) games will be played, a small convenience store is for rent for $85,000. The lessee would have the privilege of using the lot, roof, or face of the building to advertise and promote his company's name in any way, shape, or form he prefers. Now everyone can cash in on the Olympics, not just big companies like IBM or NBC. The "American way" prevails. Children are not excluded from this event, that would not be fair. Izzy, the Centennial Games' mascot, has his own homepage, sort of. Kingplush, the maker and distributor of Izzy, created this page. One blue ink blot does appear on the page, we think it is Izzy. A short biography follows, explaining Izzy's origins from the imagination of children. He comes from a magical Olympic land and "though he is not winning any medals, he is winning a lot of friends." This mascot is supposed to appeal to children. He can turn into any shape, like a torch, a shoe, a dollar sign. Underneath his biography, is a list of sizes and the respective prices in which you can purchase him. Ordering is easy.
With little shame, many corporations and small businesses alike have turned the Olympics into their own profit-gaining scam. When so much money is riding on an event, it gains importance on every level. The image must remain intact, so the truth does not always seem like the best option. These sites take very seriously the saying that "what you do not know will not hurt you." Of course, everyone should know about the bombing, but why remind them it is not in the spirit of the games?
This page was created by the following critical surfers:
Stephanie Chan
Tawana Winkfield
Garreth Biegun
Karen Sewell/
Feel free to tell us what you think.