Obama's Invesco-Field Stage: Oops! He Did It Again

DENVER -- The same team that put together Britney Spears' last tour created the stage where Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Presidential Nomination last night. Is that a problem? Not really.

There are only so many world-class "event designers" and for them it's not about specializing. It's about knowing how to evaluate the appeal of a brand, about creating excitement. Every brand -- or in this case, every candidate -- needs to be a rock star to succeed in this cluttered age.

Did the Invesco stage work for or against Obama?

In the days and hours before the acceptance speech, the conservative press nicknamed the Greek-columned set the "Temple of Obama" and "Barackopolis." Fake photos showing Obama in a toga popped up all over the blogosphere.

Stage-construction images airing on Thursday afternoon didn't help matters because the empty stadium only made the backdrop look more like ancient Greece, and more in-the-round than it really was. Remember the Galactic Senate in "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones?" That's how it looked. I instinctively scanned the rows and rows of empty seats looking for Yoda and Jar Jar Binks.

Whoever leaked information about the set to the mainstream media was just asking for trouble. My colleagues in the Auto Show business know better. Even Jar Jar Binks knows better, and he's an idiot. "Monsters out there. Leaking in here. Whena yousa thinking we are in trouble?" Cut through the dialect and you have a Gungan Senator who knows when to keep his mouth shut.

How to spot a failed set design

OffTheBus spoke with Keith Goldberg, creative vice president, George P. Johnson Experience Marketing, Auburn Hills, Mich., to find out what success looks like. "A set works when it's an experience that dimensionalizes the candidate," said Goldberg. "Ideally a set serves as a window into the candidate's life experience, enabling the audience to connect with him in a deep and meaningful manner."

From the looks of the Invesco Field stage, I can only surmise Obama was raised in the Parthenon.

"Know your audience, know your message, and craft an experience that reflects where those two things meet," Goldberg added. "A set fails when it goes off-brand, meaning it doesn't represent well the message being articulated."

I thought something was off-message when Sheryl Crow sang "a change will do you good" on a stage resembling Old Washington. When Al Gore said, "Don't recycle the old Bush policies," I thought to myself, "But the Obama Camp recycled the old Bush stage!"

Don't get me started on the music they chose for the finale...

Comments

[CharlieinDenver]

From my vantage point, on the north side of the field and about 10 rows up, the set did not distract from the man or the moment. At the end of the day, the pundits can hash out the fineries of stage craft, but the 80,000 who came to Mile High were there for the speaker not for the design of the podium.

[LibbyLoon]

I thought the set design was great. But the country music they played at the end was disgusting and ruined the whole mood.

[JinChicago]

wow diane. your bitter hillary agenda is old and stale, so nitpicking about a modern design element used in a majority of STATE OWENED BUILDINGS that represents DEMOCRACY is not a bad thing, no matter how much you think otherwise the american people got the message. get on board or find something SUBSTANTIVE to complain about

[campgranata]

the set was appropriate; a classically inspired backdrop for a class act. Nicely done

[Pupadup4oBama]

besides - "old washington" is where he will be residing for the next 8 years...so get used to it.

In case you didn't know it was a mock up of the white house.

[Pupadup4oBama]

considering the fact that it was shown on TV, I think the set design worked VERY well.
Yes there were 84,000 THERE, but there were MILLIONS at home watching.

Get over the 'tude

[justobserve]

40 millions, to be exact, watched the TVs. 84,000 and 40,000 are record numbers even more than for Olympics or Oscars.

[vernbvb]

You are absolutely correct! He did do it again - no, my bad, he did it better than ever! We thought that scene in Germany was awesome and his speech superb but last night was spectacular and delicious. This was one event and speech that will forever be remembered and revered by all who witnessed it. So stop hating.

[mebble]

You should have something interesting and new to say if you're going to post, Diane. I mean, what's your point, aside from minute nit-picking.

The only thing more spectacular than last night was the opening of the Beijing Olympics.

Filling a stadium with 85K enthusiastic supporters sends a strong message.

It will be interesting to see if the RNC can even have a convention, much less enthusiastic participants.

[PuppaX]

It didn't look like the Parthenon; it looked like the Rose Garden. And it was perfect. I still have the image of the Obama and Biden families waving goodbye and walking back "inside."

[fignozzle]

perhaps those toga pictures will demonstrate the immaturity of the oldest candidate ever!

[SurrealPumpkin]

didn't they come out of his closet?

[marymansour]

Paul Begala said it all a few hours before the opening last evening. loosely quoting Paul: "I like a guy who thinks big. 85,000 people just to hear a politician speak. It's amazing."

Once again the remarkable man who is Barack Obama drew a huge crowd.

Obama/Biden '08. AND IN THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2009!

[DieHardObamaSupporter]

Apparently you need to upgrade your television set, because what we saw on ours was SPECTACULAR!

[filo]

I think the GOP would rather Obama appeared before a green screen because they are green with envy if this is what they gripe about. It was Hi-Tech staging, Barack's podium dropped down and dissappeared after his speech. Nice.

[eden4barack08]

NONSENSE! None of those things were the subject last night. You missed a great convention closing night if that's all you saw.

[picard922]

Piffle.I produced corporate theater for 10 years - big clients, big projects, big bucks. The staging worked just fine. In fact, the entire convention was beautifully orchestrated and masterfully executed. People who insist that the set at Invesco field looked like the Parthenon have obviously not been to Greece.

[Fabienne]

Far and away best convention I've seen in my life and I'm 62.

[456]

excellent backdrop. it made the stadium actually look intimate.

[SurrealPumpkin]

I didn't think I remembered seeing paned windows in the original.