Obvious Warcraft-related jokes aside…I expected more from this one.
This morning Olympic organizers unveiled the official medal ceremony platforms for the Vancouver Games. The official Vancouver Olympics website carried a long piece about the platforms, lionizing both the elaborate, decorative design and the committee which approved it. Calling the platforms “a testimony to the mountains,” the article went on to describe the platforms in detail, along with the design and construction process that made them a reality. In fact, it described the platforms so thoroughly that a reader could almost see them.
Almost.
But not quite.
Because, you see, the beauty, design and flow of the platforms rated a fifteen-paragraph story – without a single picture.
Note to reporters covering the Vancouver Games (and the editors and webmasters who love to make fools of them): if you take the time to write an article about the beauty and unique design of a structure, particularly one which you think will become “a centerpiece” of the Olympic Games, you might want to include a photograph so people can actually see what you’re talking about. If there isn’t a photographer free, borrow a camera. Or a cell phone. From the guy walking next to you on the sidewalk, if need be. Because otherwise, people might just click through to your story – with its tagline about “dynamic sculptural podiums” inspired by the gorgeous mountain backdrop against which they will play their part in the Olympic Games – hoping to actually see a photograph of said platforms. Or mountains. Or even a graphic representation of the Olympic rings with a mountain sketched in behind it. Something. And when they see fifteen paragraphs of text without an image, some of those readers might just head over to their blogs and mention it in a negative light.
They might even call it a Wednesday Fail.
