The last crime I saw in Paris?

I missed the live broadcast, I must confess.

Was busy working on a pitch or falling asleep on the sofa in front of the TV, I can’t quite remember, it’s a blur. (That’s the nature of advertising in your mid-life years, but I digress…)

When I checked social media in the mid morning, there was a healthy range of opinions and debates. People were enraged, baffled, perplexed and shocked.

So, instead of going through all of them, I decided to watch the re-run of the Olympics Opening Ceremony instead.

I found it surprising, provocative, tres chic, unsettling, plain weird and at times beautiful. Rather than a conventional opening ceremony in a closed stadium, Paris 2024 chose to go into the great outdoors that is Paris, utilizing the city’s iconic landmarks as a part of the ceremony.

If you have an Eiffel Tower as a cultural asset, it definitely makes sense to use it to show off the French way of doing things to the world. I must confess the moment that Zinedine Zidane took the torch and then handed it to Rafael Nadal, in front of an estimated 1.5 billion viewers worldwide, gave me goosebumps.

And for Paris 2024 to give centre stage to non-French celebrities like the Spanish serial winner of the French Open, Lady Gaga and Celine Dion who is fighting a debilitating illness, to me spoke of their welcoming spirit.

They also wisely limited their country’s President Macron (not Macaroon) to just one sentence “I declare the Paris 2024 Olympic games open”. Thus maintaining the appearance of non-political sports.

There was some weird stuff too like I mentioned. I saw a bunch of people around a table, dancing, smiling and one suspiciously naked man covered in blue paint. I was wondering what he signified.

Then I saw the firestorm online, and dug deeper to see what exactly had happened and created so many diverse opinions. Was it art or was it a crime? Some people thought this tableau offended Christians, as it seemed to mock the Last Supper, when Judas dined with the other 11 apostles before he betrayed Jesus.

Another interpretation was that this skit was supposed to signify a pre-Christian Bacchanalian romp, suitable for the ancient Greeks who invented the Olympics.

So I investigated further to see who was behind all this. As it turns out it’s a left wing theatre director who has built a huge reputation for himself prior to this show.Thomas Jolly was appointed artistic director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics in collaboration with Thierry Reboul.

According to Tony Estanguet, President of Paris 2024, Thomas Jolly was “a bold choice, consistent with our vision”. Thomas Jolly presented an artistic staging, structured around a series of 12 tableaux, designed to be inclusive and representative of France, declaring “Above all, I want this ceremony to include everyone. We must all celebrate this diversity”.

Whatever your religious belief, and whether you believe Thomas Jolly or not, we must agree that Paris 2024 was different and innovative. There were some truly beautiful moments.

The automated horse gliding down the Seine, the lighting of the Olympic flame into a cauldron like a hot air balloon, and the 12 folks dressed like some masked avenging medieval character running across the tops of buildings and doing parkour are images that are indelible.

Apparently this honoured the game Assassin’s Creed, which is created by a French company and has the most detailed drawings and renderings of the Notre Dame, and has donated them to the restoration committee of the burnt out church.

The whole ceremony was full of Easter eggs in a sense, stuff to parse and understand. It may not be jingostic or communal like a typical opening ceremony, but it was artistic, classy at times, sloppy too, and very brave.

To me, it’s a lesson to us all in the creative professions. Can we think out of the box, try something different, and create conversation-worthy campaigns? I am not saying we should shock or offend, please note. I think the basic tenets of respecting every religion and culture must always maintained.

But can we zig when the industry zags?

Can we float the athletes down the river in boats of varying hues and sizes instead of marching them into a stadium? Can we put worldwide legend on the Eiffel and help her make her big comeback?

Maybe not everything will work smoothly, but we should be ambitious and aim higher than the conventional. To inspire and create debate and discussion, to provoke re-evaluation.

That to me is the biggest lesson of Paris 2024.

Merci beaucoup! Paris je t’aime!

Sandeep Joseph is the CEO and co-founder of Ampersand Advisory, Campaign Global Media Independent Agency of the Year and FT Statista 500 High Growth Companies Asia Pacific 2023, 2024. He can be reached at [email protected]