Karen CHRISTENSEN
A well-known global PR firm and China’s Olympic Committee search for the right way to present China to the world.
There has never been a public relations campaign like this, selling the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and then the world on Beijing as the place to be in August 2008. Judging from a conversation I just overheard among group of Columbia students about going—not because it’s the Olympics but because it’s the Olympics in China—the campaign may be working.
The city lost its bid for the 2000 Olympics to Sydney, but by the time I made my first trip to China in April 2001, Beijing was a strong contender for 2008 and was making every effort to secure the honor. There were Beijing Olympics posters in the elevator. There were posters in the lobby. There were posters everywhere you turned, in fact.
