Tim Tsui and Alice Chan Coca-Cola 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Pin Sets

It seems like most of America has Olympic fever and it’s all anyone can talk about. While most people today are talking about the stunning come from behind victory by the United States in the 4x100 freestyle relay that kept Michael Phelps’ quest for 7 Olympic gold metals in a single Olympic Games alive, The Blot is excited about something entirely different. You see my favorite thing about the Olympic Games, summer or winter, is not always the athletic competitions. No, my favorite aspect of the Games is its unofficial spectator sport, pin trading.


While I usually try to stick to NBC related Olympic Pins like the two you see above, a new series of pins produced in extremely limited quantities by Coca-Cola has really caught my eye. To really capture the Olympic spirit Coke has commissioned two Chinese artists, Tim Tsui and Alice Chan, to each design a set of 12 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics pins. The real reason I am so excited about these particular sets is that it combines two of my hobbies, Olympic pin collecting and designer vinyl. Hong Kong artist Tim Tsui designer vinyl figures Da Warrior and Da Fighter are very stylish pieces, and I love the fact that Tim Tsui has incorporated his trademark gorilla logo into his Olympic pin series.


While I’ve only been able to find a picture of 4 of Tim Tsui’s Olympic pins, he has confirmed that his set includes 12 unique styles and is extremely limited. (link) More is known about Alice Chan’s 12 pin Princess set. (link) It depicts the Chinese Zodiac in Chan’s unique contemporary art style. You can see her entire 12 piece Coke Beijing Olympic pin set below.


I’ve got some pin traders in Beijing keeping an eye out for the Tim Tsui set or me, but I haven’t heard of any pin sightings yet. A few of Alice Chan’s Princess pins have already found their way on to eBay though. So I'm sure its only a matter of time until a few pieces of the Gorilla set find their way onto the ‘Bay as well.

Super Bowl XLII Commercials

Wow, what a game. I was going to write about the New York Giants surprising and defensively dominate performance over the New England Patriots, but let’s be honest, the game really spoke for itself. Many thought it was slow and boring, but I thought it was amazing. It was a truly unbelievable performance by the Giants defensive front seven and a seemingly collapse by the team of destiny. What wasn’t as spectacular were this year’s Super Bowl Commercials. I can’t believe companies spent $2.4 million per spot for some of these horrible commercials. (link)

I was very under whelmed by most of the commercials, and a few were all time lows. Every year Pepsi’s commercials seem to get worse and worse. Both their commercials for Diet Pepsi Max and Pepsi Stuff were heavy on celebrities but low on creativity and entertainment. I thought the SalesGenie.com commercials were insulting and downright horrible and, after a few years of great commercials, I thought CareerBuilder.com dropped the ball this year. Then there were the companies with multiple ads that were collectively somewhere in the middle. Bud Light, Budweiser, and Bridgestone all had multiple ads and some were good, some were bad…but none were that spectacular. I just can't get over the fact that Geico brought back the cavemen and then Bud Light jumped on the caveman bandwagon. I'm pretty sure we'd all be better off if we never had to see another caveman commercial again!

Here are my Top 5 Ads from Super Bowl XLII (what do you think?):

1. Coca Cola – Parade Balloons

What can I say, I’m a sucker for the Macy’s Day Parade and thought the use of the different balloons was so creative. Plus Coke was able to use three iconic characters, Underdog, The Family Guy’s Stewie and Charlie Brown, all fighting over the classic Coca Cola bottle.



2. Cars.com – Stone Circle Fight to Death as Plan B

Cars.com released two different Super Bowl ads this year, but only the first one really stood out in my eyes. Everyone watching the game with me was laughing over this one…it must be something about a crazy extreme tattooed fighter screaming as he roles his fists in broken glass.



3. Coca Cola – Super Bowl Ad featuring Republican Bill Frist and Democrat James Carville

This was a great year for Coke as there is already a second Coca Cola ad in The Blot’s Top 3. Its election season and Coke came out swinging with a very funny bipartisan Washington, DC based commercial. Plus who doesn’t love a good Jinx, you just don’t see those very much anymore.



4. T-Mobile – Charles Barkley Finally Adds Dwayne Wade to His Fave 5

I love Sir Charles and I love DWade and thought this continuation of the popular T-Mobile Fave 5 commercials was a winner.



5. Audi R8 Luxury Sports Car – The Godfather Spoof

While I didn’t think this commercial was amazing, I loved the riff off of the classic scene in The Godfather when a strong message was sent to a rival with the deposit of a bloody horse head into the rivals’ bed.