INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC ACADEMY 7th JOINT - IOA

encourages homogeneity and indifference towards anything foreign
and different. To be able to attract a public as wide as possible, the
media will avoid complex messages. They prefer easy, understandable
and immediately identifiable messages, which may not be interpreted
in many different ways (Thompson 1995: 179-206, Morley and
Robins 1995: 26-42, Roche 2003).
For Greece, the communication strategy is important because, first
of all, this is the first time that such a vast and multi-level campaign
for the country’s promotion has been put together and, secondly,
because an attempt is being made to change Greece’s global
stereotype image that has been attached to it mainly by tourism and
the media. In any event, this is the most crucial issue and the biggest
challenge.
The Greek organization is promoting as its central message, the
country’s unique position with respect to the ancient Olympic Games,
the classic ideals of the Olympic Movement, the revival of the Games
in 1896 and their return to Athens in the 21 st century.
If this uncontested uniqueness is promoted in a way that will allow
all people to identify with it, if viewers all over the world can decode
the world messages of ancient civilization and integrate them
positively in their own cultural reality, then Greece will not only have
achieved its target (to promote its civilization in a different and
diversified way) but it will have also rendered, once again, valuable
services to the modern Olympic Movement. Maintaining proper
balances will be a delicate matter in such an ambitious undertaking
because they may conflict with the choices and approach of the large
multinational partners and/or sponsors of the Games for increasing
their competitivity.
3. “Building” the image of the city of Athens
The promotion campaign for Athens is based, on the one hand, on
the wider campaign launched by the Organizing Committee for the
Olympic Games (OCOG) Athens 2004 and, on the other, on the
actions undertaken by certain government bodies such as the National
Tourist Organization (NTO), the Ministry for Press and the Media, the
municipality of Athens, etc.
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