One and a half hours of entertainment and three weeks of wall to wall coverage; yes the Olympics have arrived. Needless to say I‘m avoiding it by listening to Radio 4 extra whilst medicating with something fizzy and pink.
Friday saw the much anticipated Opening Ceremony watched by nearly 27m viewers in the UK and a speculated global audience of 1 billion. I confess I watched until the 204 teams started entering the stadium when I slowly lost the will to live.
Widely considered to be a successful spectacle that was quintessentially British by the world’s media, the not-for-profit sector was represented in various forms. I’m sure I spotted the RNLI as well as the wonderful Kaos Signing Choir and membership organisations, Liberty and CND. I’ve probably managed to miss some other examples.
But for me the biggest winner from the night, as far as the voluntary sector is concerned, was the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. As the sequence on children’s literature began we were treated to J K Rowling reading an extract from Peter Pan. For those who don’t know, J M Barrie donated the rights in Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street. Whilst copyright currently lasts for 70 years from the death of the author, an amendment to the Copyright Designs & Patents Act of 1988 means that Great Ormond Street receives royalties in perpetuity.
We were treated to a 25 second shot of the GOSH logo – which looked fantastic from the aerial shot above the stadium. This link between GOSH and Peter Pan also gave a very neat way of tying together the NHS and children’s literature.
So why do I suggest GOSH were the biggest winners? Because, according to one media buyer a 25 second ad reaching that sort of audience could, were it possible to buy one, easily cost around £100m. Somehow I’m guessing that GOSH may have waived their extract fee given the value of what they got in return. A friend who’s a literary agent tells me that would have been in the region of £200 or so. It was also a fantastic opportunity to recognise what I often think of as the Hospital of Last Resort to many thousands of children across the UK
