'Danny Boyle absolutely smashed it' says D&AD CEO of London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony
Tim Lindsay, CEO of creative awards scheme D&AD offers his response to Danny Boyle's £27m Olympics opening ceremony which drew a TV audience of almost 27m.
We know that this fine Saturday morning, because (pretty much) everyone, in the chattering classes at least, agrees that it was fantastic; moving, eloquent, funny, pointed – a great showcase for Great Britain.
But you also knew last night if, as half the world seemed to be doing, you were ‘watching’ on Twitter or Facebook. The social-media-sphere was crackling with comment – 99% positive to ecstatic.
Most of it was just friends and families sharing a great experience (and wondering how long it was going to be before the announcer said, ‘et maintenant, l’equipe de Zimbabwe…’). Some of it was little pearls of wit and wisdom hoping for the retweet that would make the originator famous for fifteen minutes. Some of it was really rather good.
Three examples.
Someone described the soundtrack as ‘your classic British wedding disco, without the fight’.
Someone else said it was Danny Boyle’s ‘love letter to Britain’ – and, whatever you feel about the Olympics, it was hard not to feel better about our four countries after the show than before it.
And Alistair Campbell got the best political shot in when he tweeted that the show was ‘Danny Boyle explaining the Big Society to David Cameron’.
Nice one Alistair; accept this as a form of RT.
Hard to imagine how it could have been better…….
……..wait though, yes, it could. The one thing that united the posters and tweeters last night was Sir Paul McGrecian2000 (as he was described a few times). Time to move on, surely. ‘Hey Jude’ is as much of a dirge as the official national anthem and we’ve all heard it as many times. Jarvis Cocker? Blur? Arctic Monkeys? You’ll have your own list.
So with that ungracious carp out of the way let’s move on. We live in a great country. We have a rich history, great music and literature, brilliant artists and scientists, a wonderful, bustling, bubbling multicultural capital; even, perhaps, a sense of our place in the world.
And we have Danny Boyle to celebrate it for us. Nice one Danny.