sushipanda

It’s been a full week since Li Ning, China’s original Olympic superstar-turned-businessman traversed the upper enclosure of the Bird’s Nest in a stunning merger of inspired ideation and breathtaking execution. Those I’ve talked to who carry a more jaded view of image manipulation and advertising trickery were nevertheless impressed by two main things about the event: the impressive use of LED and Li Ning’s pwnage (clapping myself on the back for using that term for the first time in my 30 years of existance) of Adidas.

A friend who is a creative director here at Wieden Kennedy’s Shanghai office put it this way: “Total checkmate.” Just goes to show how much egg in the face $80M in sponsorship money can buy you. Response from Adidas? From Businessweek.com:

Playing second fiddle to a local rival at the opening ceremony wasn’t part of the plan. Now, with Li Ning having scored a publicity coup in front of an audience of 4 billion, the German company is looking for silver linings. A company spokesman points out that Li actually wasn’t wearing Li Ning clothes on Friday night. “Li Ning was in a torchbearer uniform which is from Adidas,” says Jan Runau, chief corporate communications officer.

Yup, that’ll do the trick.

Yes, we’re a few days late on this, but hell, I’m such a slow and laborious blogger that I’m surprised the Games are still going on while I write this.

We watched the opening ceremony at Park Tavern on Hengshan Road last week. It was crowded with foreigners, though we did see a small group of Chinese dudes carrying a flag up to the 2nd floor. My friend Alex had reserved a few tables for us but by the time Clint and I got there, most of the seats were taken and people were already crowding around the LCDs both inside and out. On this depressingly humid night we decided to stand by a pillar near the indoors bar and watch on a smaller screen. There was a ton of chatter and it made it difficult to hear what the broadcasters were saying, but since we were there for the visuals we figured it didn’t matter.

Clint, Cathy, and I started oohing and aahing right away, as the phalanx of PLA drummers was followed by the massive LED scroll splayed across the giant field. By the time the ceremony got to the puppets and the opera, our attentions had shifted to hating on the oblivious couple sitting at the bar, blocking half the screen for the rest of us. Then we started to feel the effects of the Stella and just gave cursory notice to what was on the screen until the Olympic athletes started marching in. At first I was preoccupied with the crappy steak sandwich and the usually delicious mozzarella sticks (which were cold on this busy night — but whatever, I ate five of them anyway). We then decided to hang around and wait for the US delegation.

Wow, good thing we did. When the US team started marching into the stadium, most of the crowd started cheering. Above all else, American expats in Shanghai are the kind that like to make noise. The usually reticent Clint started howling “USA! USA! USA!” Then, the camera cut to a shot of Bush cheering in the VIP section. Within a nanosecond all the cheers stopped and Park Tavern was filled with nothing but boos. Like, seriously loud boos. I looked to my right and there were guys literally giving the screen the middle finger.

The video reverted back to the athletes. “USA! USA! USA” Clint started cheering again, and we could hear clapping from outside. Then the camera cut back to Bush. “BOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” The dudes next to us started flipping off the screen again. One of my Singaporean friends tried to tell me something but I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

I was booing way too loud.