Style and Substance: The Chicago Olympic Video Has Neither and It's Dreadful

The First Couple is home, looking more fabulous than ever. Mrs. O writes: The president and first lady have returned home to the White House, and while the Olympic bid was perhaps not a success, the first couple is certainly looking more stylish than ever! First Lady Mrs. O wears a graphic black and white dress, cinched at the waist with her longtime favorite Alaia belt and topped by a cropped black cardigan.

"Perhaps not a success" is an understatement, given Chicago's elimination in the first round.

I will ignore Republican comments on the wisdom of the president's decision to go to Copenhagen. I'm not a Republican.

I don't know the details of the Chicago bid, but it seemed totally logical to me that Brazil should get the Olympics. Every global trend that I study put the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The most unsettling questions coming out of the President's trip to Copenhagen, underscored here by Mrs.O's "comforting" news "not to worry, the O's still look great", is the question of style over substance in the Obama presidency.

Say what you wish, the president of the US should not be getting on Air Force One right now, launching the Team Obama offensive if the win isn't "in the bag, so to speak".

True, Tony Blair won the gold for London. But President Obama has far more on the line right now, including his competency.

Ignoring Conservative and Republican critiques, one wonders if the Chicago triumverate that's closest to President Obama -- Jarrett, Axelrod, and Emanuel truly understand the concerns going on in the minds of moderate Dems around his efficacy.

Efficacy is different from rhetoric, which the president has plenty of. But the presidency of the United States is about far more than glamour and sexy charisma. Mrs. O's "oh well" approach is fine for fashionistas, but not for presidents.

The Lonton Times, who has only written generally good things about the president, says: 

 There has been a growing narrative taking hold about Barack Obama’s presidency in recent weeks: that he is loved by many, but feared by none; that he is full of lofty vision, but is actually achieving nothing with his grandiloquence.

Chicago’s dismal showing yesterday, after Mr Obama’s personal, impassioned last-minute pitch, is a stunning humiliation for this President. It cannot be emphasised enough how this will feed the perception that on the world stage he looks good — but carries no heft.

Last fall I sat a dinner with a former member of the Clinton cabinet and avid Obama supporter. I was for Clinton.

Wearing my rose-colored glasses, I wanted a Clinton/Obama ticket where POTUS got his training wheels oiled up and then became president in 2016, even though history doesn't present much support of my strategy.

I love President Obama but the lack of political, global experience of Team Obama scared the wits out of me, much as I embrace their message.

Rosabeth Moss Cantor of Harvard Business School asks about Copenhagen: “Could this be one more sign that the U.S. Is no longer world champion? Or that the Obama magic that so captivated people outside the U.S. has frayed at the edges internationally too? Perhaps I’m reading too much into a complex decision comparing cities. But the President isn’t a Mayor and shouldn’t have taken this risk and squandered credibility when he needs some national victories in Congress on health. He needed to look like a winner, and now he’s personally associated with losing.” via NY Times

When I was 13 years old, my first big-city road trip as with my cousin Jo and great-aunt Grace to Chicago. I was in heaven, walking into the Chicago Art Institute, surrounded by tall buildings and taking the train from Skokie.

From my small-town Minnesota perch, Chicago was dazzling -- although I knew at seven that I was New York bound. I have always loved Chicago.

Nevertheless, in watching the fizzle and listening to the rhetoric, even President Obama's speech in Copenhagen, it struck me that we're not living in the land of reality anymore. In an effort to be fair, I just watched the Chicago Olympic bid video and then Rio's.

Rio's 2016 Olympic Bid Video

Chicago's 2016 Olympic Bid Video

As a marketing person, I will tell you that the Chicago video is dark, old and reminds me of a car plant that's running out of steam. It opens with a statement:

A Chicago Man Knows that He Has a Mission to Accomplish in This World, via Pierre du Coubertin

How patriarchal and old-school is that!!! You just risked alienating half your audience! For crying out loud.

The video is desolate, not lush. It's not inviting. After the opening turnoff to me, I have 40 seconds of watching a woman Olympian in a wheelchair. She's in a cold, desolate, beige and grey environment. Sterile and without any energy.

What in this first 40 seconds inspires me to come to Chicago? This is like a therapy session, not a celebration of life and vitality.

The Olympic runner Michael Conley walks along a street in the winter -- for the Summer Olympics. There are no leaves on the trees.

My readers, do you really want to spend your summer vacation in this place? Walking along in desolation, Conley reflects on 80,000 people, cheering him on in happiness. Yet this is an ugly video.  80% of the video is dark and foreboding.

There is no sound of a crowd. The sound is silence and desolation.

Sorry, my friends, but the video is a reminder of a country that is out of sync with the world. What were they thinking!

Now I'm really concerned about the West Wing.  If this is the video that was supposed to leave not a dry eye in the house, according to Valerie Jarrett, I'm not weeping. I'm mad.

Twice the video talks about Chicago being associated with fire. Not once, but twice!!!

Any thinking person knows that there's huge concerns about having the Olympics in America over terrorism. You do not overcome that global fear talking about fire not once, but twice, and at the end no less. You leave your audience with a message that a city that has already burned twice just might burn again.

Why does Chicago and the West Wing believe it's intelligent to introduce the theme of catastrophe into a promotional Olympic video???

I'm seriously concerned about the competency of the West Wing in understanding what's required to succeed in the modern world. Perhaps it would be best to have a person really close to the president who is from -- Seattle or Austin, Texas -- in the West Wing.

I'm not promoting New York here. We have our own problems.

If this video represents the Obama Administration's vision of America, and is supposed to inspire the world to come to Chicago, our ship is about to sink.

Today I am convinced that America is challenged beyond our wildest dreams in understanding how to compete in the modern world.

This video clinches the deal -- hook, line and sinker. Sorry Chicago and Valerie Jarrett, but this video is dreadful, and I am speechless. Anne