Olympic Designs: Coke

It’s hard to believe we have 10 days left to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics! Road closures are in effect and sponsors are painting the town with their colours. This past Sunday, Derrick and I decided to go downtown to experience the hype that’s slowly building each day…

Everytime we go downtown, we see something new. Only this time, it was a whole day’s worth of “something new”. We had to drop by The Bay to get some watches repaired and that’s when we bumped into the Olympics Store situated on the main floor of this department giant. About 1/3 of the store was transformed into one massive souvenir shop filled with Olympic murals and sponsored content.

And that’s what I’d like to share with you today. I could talk about how great the Vancouver 2010 Olympic brand looks, but I’d rather focus on what you can’t find in magazines today. If you really want to read about the Olympic brand, go to a Chapters and pick up a Communication Arts or Applied Arts magazine.

Amidst the sea of blue and green Olympic colours is a burst of bright red, tucked away in the corner of The Bay. What you find are two “mini shops” for Coke – a cafe and a pin trading centre.

I used to collect pins as a kid – so walking into this area brought back sweet memories. It was amazing – one guy had pins from all the previous Olympics going back to the 60s. I sure wish I brought my collection.

Aside from that, this pin trading centre was adorned with bright and colourful graphics, Coke really made it a happening place.

Next to it was the cafe. The message was clearly about recycling. Did you know that Coke plans to launch its new “Plant Bottle” during the Olympics? This is a new recyclable bottle that’s partially made from plants. Read more about it here.

This Coke cafe made such a huge effort to make recycling fun. Take for instance, their interactive tables. Sit down, have a refreshment and spin the table to learn more about being green. We didn’t sit down, but the spinning was addictive…

Giant recycling bins in the shape of their bottles were also attention grabbing. If only they made recycling in schools this much fun…

Get a load of this Coke wrap machine! Apply your own wrap to a Coke bottle. I wish I tried it for kicks… Anyone up for doing this and sending me their pic?

And more graphics to stare at, including t-shirt designs…

And lastly, the Coke bubbles hanging from the ceiling. You wouldn’t have known this was all inside The Bay downtown Vancouver.

Seeing the sites two weeks before the Games couldn’t have been more perfect. Sunny weather and Olympic fever filled the air.

Stay tuned for more posts tomorrow and Friday on how Vancouver is transforming for the Olympics.

> Christine

{ images taken by Christine }