Of Sponsors, Worlds Fairs, Olympic Games And Posters
Posted: 10/1/2009 11:14:25 AM by
Lesa Ukman | with 1 comments
Just in the nick of time, sponsors came forward and there will be a U.S. Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo in China.
Considering the ease with which we field an Olympic team every two years, you might assume a U.S. presence at a world’s fair such as Expo 2010—which is expected to draw 70 million visitors, some 63.2 million more than the Beijing Games—is a given. It is not.
Sponsoring a world’s fair is a hard sell to corporate America. Similar to the rest of the world’s love of soccer versus Americans’ tepid support, world’s fairs are a much bigger deal outside the U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made U.S. participation in Shanghai a top priority. Government funds are prohibited from being used for world expos, but Secretary Clinton let it be known to potential sponsors that a U.S. presence at the event was crucial.
It worked. Sponsorship totaling $61 million has been secured, with $58 million coming in between March and July. Deals, which were sold by Expo 2010 Inc.—the nonprofit responsible for coordinating the U.S. pavilion—include:
- PepsiCo in for $5 million. (For the record, Coca-Cola had already signed as a global sponsor of the Expo and will have its own pavilion and exclusivity for on-site sales of soft drinks and tea. Pepsi can only use the U.S. Pavilion as a promotional platform.)
- 3M
- Yum! Brands
- General Electric
- Cargill
- Golden Eagle International Group
- Wal-Mart
- Dell
- Microsoft
- Boeing
- Intel
- Panasonic
- Corning
- NYSE Euronext
The second-class status of world’s fairs vis a vis the Olympics was not always thus. To build interest in the Olympic Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin had organizers of the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris host the 1900 Olympic Games as part of the fair.
The International Olympic Committee, which was established during a congress organized by French historian de Coubertin in 1894, ceded control of the Games to a committee connected to the Exposition Universelle. Bad idea. For example, Olympic track and field was promoted under the heading: “Means of developing the mind and morals of the worker.” Coubertin is said to have expressed his amazement that the Olympic movement survived that experience.
Yet, still in need of audience building, the 1904 Olympic Games were held in St. Louis as part of its world’s fair.
I happen to know this history because I collect event posters, including ones for Olympic Games and world’s fairs. There was no poster for the 1896 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad. Held in Athens, they were the first Games of the modern era.
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| The first Olympic poster was for the ill-fated 1900 Games. As you can see, it has historic value but is a disaster aesthetically. |
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| The first Olympic poster I like was done for Stockholm in 1912 and shows the parade of nations. However the nudity of the athletes, a reference to the ancient Games, was deemed too daring and the poster was not distributed in many of the participating countries. |
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| The poster for the 1928 Winter Games, held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, is the first to use the Olympic rings, though de Coubertin designed the five interlocking multicolored rings more than a decade earlier. |
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Beginning with the 1964 Games in Tokyo and continuing with the ’68 Games in Mexico City, host committees abandoned the single poster and began issuing entire collections.
Mexico’s logo was described as "one of the most successful works in the evolution of visual identification" in the book A History of Graphic Design. It was inspired by the native art of the Huichol, and the Op Art style of the ’60s. |
Lance Wyman, Mexico Olympics 1968 |
| One of the best and most popular Olympic posters was done for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by the British artist Allen Jones. |
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| It was part of the Art Series, where famous artists were invited to express their ideas on human movement. There were 29 of these, including the one below by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Munich also issued a Sports Series of Olympic posters, which were used to advertise the Games and as directional signage. The visual image of the sport replaced the need for German, English and French language signs. |
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| The 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games continued calling on famous artists to design posters, including David Hockney, who created this swimming image. |
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An excellent post on Olympic design by a professional designer can be found here.
You can read the official history of Olympic posters in a report prepared by the Olympic Museum. Access it here.
Famous artists have been designing posters for events and causes for decades. Below some of my favorites, alphabetically by artist.
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Joseph Binder, New York World’s Fair, 1939. The Art Deco symbols of the New York World's Fair plus images of planes, trains and ocean liners captures New York's spirit of dynamism and optimism, even in the face of a global depression and the imminent war. Themed "The World of Tomorrow," the Fair drew 44 million attendees. |
Alexander Calder, for the United Nations, 1968 |
Jules Cheret, Paris Grand Prix, 1897 |
Jean Cocteau, Menton Music Festival, Menton, France |
De Saint-Morand, one of six lithographs celebrating the Centennial of the Statue of Liberty, 1986 |
Niki de Saint Phalle, Montreux Jazz Festival, 1984 |
Niki de Saint Phalle, New York Film Festival, 1973 |
Jim Dine, Lincoln Center Festival 50th anniversary, 2008 |
Jean Du Buffet, Paris Autumn Festival, 1973 |
Jean-Michel Folon, Cannes Film Festival, 1978 |
Jean-Michel Folon, Spoleto Festival, 1977 |
Milton Glaser, Ambler Music Festival |
Milton Glaser, Environnemental Action Coalition |
Milton Glaser, Los Angeles Bicentennial, 1981 |
Milton Glaser, San Diego Jazz Festival |
Milton Glaser, Woodstock Film Festival, 2009 |
R.C. Gorman, New Mexico Music Festival 1983 |
One of the world’s most acclaimed automotive artists, George Ham is known for technical accuracy and painstaking realism. A part-time racer, Ham (1900-1972) was an auto buff who duplicated the precise position of every car part and often exaggerated details to convey blazing speed. Ham created watercolors and gouaches, as well as caricatures of various race car drivers. He illustrated a catalogue, a leading French pictorial magazine, and posters of the Grand Prix of Monaco and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. |
Jane Hammond, French Open, 2003 |
Keith Haring, Montreux Jazz Festival, 1983 |
David Hockney, Miami New World Festival of Art, 1982
Detail from stage set of The Zanzibar with Postcards and Kiosks |
David Hockney, Spoleto Festival, 1976 |
Bill Komoski, Community Holiday Festival, 1987 |
Leuenberger, Monaco Grand Prix, 1959 |
Roy Lichtenstein, Aspen Winter Jazz festival, 1967 |
Joan Miró, Futbol Club Barcelona, 1974 |
Lowell Nesbitt, Community Holiday Festival, 1978 |
Finn Nygaard, Jazz - Aarhaus International Festival, 1990 |
Claes Oldenburg, Lake Union Seattle Festival, 1972 |
Pablo Picasso, Avignon Festival, 1978 |
J. Ramel, Monaco Grand Prix, 1958 |
Paul Rand, Earth Day, 1995 |
Robert Rauschenberg, Earth Day |
Robert Rauschenberg, Texas Festival 1991 |
Ben Shahn, Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds, 1965 |
Frank Stella, Lincoln Center Festival, 1967 |
Jean Tinguely, Montreux-Detroit Festival of Jazz, 1982 |
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Scott Westmoreland, “Board Stiff” |
Jamie Wyeth, Mostly Mozart Festival, 2005 |
Jack Youngerman, Amnesty International, 1977
One of the 15 posters created under the Artists for Amnesty series to call attention to Amnesty Internationals Prisoners of Conscience Year. |
Zep, Montreux Jazz Festival, 2005 |
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Filed under: festivals, olympics, selling, events