Red, White, and Gold

Today was an Olympic moment (don't mind my pun). Not only did the Canadian Olympic Men's Hockey Team defeat the United States in a heart-pumping game, but today Canada also saw itself rise to another level: the most gold medals a country has ever won during the winter Olympics, and the most gold medals by a host country. Is it wrong that I am glowing with pride?

It amazes me how one game, one event, one moment, can define a country and unite everyone together. Overhearing numerous people today in the mall talk about the gold medal game, and the excitement that was buzzing around my own house was something that gave me a tingling feeling. And how fitting that the final would be against our neighbours to the South.

The Olympics have brought us Canadians many moments and memories to be proud of but today was the day that will go down in history. Our men`s Olympic hockey team have made our whole country proud (and a special props goes to Sidney Crosby for scoring the winning goal in overtime). It was a feeling I can`t even describe watching Crosby sink the winner and then watching as the stadium erupted in Canadian Pride as the whole team bombarded Crosby.

The closing ceremonies are currently happening and watching them makes me so proud to be Canadian. Today we conquered the hockey game, on Canadian ice, in a Canadian city. We now officially have the most gold medals, 14, for any host country and the most gold medals for any country involved with the winter Olympics, period. And that is something to be proud of. Canada now has bragging rights.

Well, at least for the next four years.

Congratulations to all our Canadian athletes, and to Vancouver for an amazing job at hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.

#GoCanadaGo #CanadaRocks!

Coke`s Innovative Olympic Mobile Campaign

In conjunction with NBC, Coca-Cola has developed a brand new Olympic campaign set to launch for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The partnership between the US broadcasting giant and non-alcoholic beverage king will allow people from all over the US to follow US athletes during their foray into Vancouver over the next couple of weeks. The campaign focuses on US athletes expected to medal or at the very least do well enough to deserve a certain amount of press.


Known as the Coca-Cola Six-Pack, the mobile campaign in conjunction with the Open The Games, Open Happiness campaign, ties together print media, television coverage and web updates all in the palm of hands. The hope is to gather a lot of national support for Olympic athletes, but at the same time show how companies like Coke and NBC are backing the games. Together with hand held updates, images, statistics and a custom built Coke WAP interface, the Six-Pack will also provide custom ring tones and phone sounds based on the games.

NBC and Coke see so much potential with the Coca-Cola Six-Pack that they have already signed a major deal to do the same in 2020 for the London Games.

Although it was never a question as to which companies would have a stranglehold on Olympic marketing, we can now safely say that Coke and NBC have gone beyond what we see on the streets.

Ontario Colleges Strike Adverted

Ontario Colleges and its students can finally let out a sigh of relief. The finaly vote tally has been counted and the majority of college faculty have voted in favour of the new contract.

For more information, visit the Ottawa Citizen and check out their article on the results of the vote.

Canada's First Gold = Music Video ?

First of all, congratulations to Alex Bilodeau on grabbing (hopefully) the first of many Olympic Gold medals for Canada last evening. Although the majority of the world is still a little bit clueless as to how Freestyle Moguls scoring goes, Canada is proud to have seen the Quebec native break the curse. But here at The Elevator Pitch we noticed something very interesting. Just minutes after Bilodeau’s score was posted on national television, CTV ran a newly edited music video featuring Bilodeau’s run. We should expect to see something like this produced over the course of the games, but to see his run with the background music of Nikki Yanofsky only minutes after means Canadian media was expecting this.

But CTV wasn’t the only one quick to congratulate Canada and Bilodeau as during the first commercial break VISA ran a congratulatory commercial mentioning Canada’s first gold medal on home soil.

It looks and sounds like Canada isn’t the only nation hoping to make a big splash over the course of the next couple of weeks as companies all over the world are quick to jump on the national pride train. Keep your eyes peeled for the next time Canada captures a gold medal and you’ll probably see various commercials and montages.