The Olympic movement is a massive global sports competition that can also be seen an institution with a definite discourse promoting global unity and peace through the participation and competition among athletes in sporting events. It's institutional apparatus, or "the forms of power knowledge that constitute the institutions: for example, architecture, regulations, scientific treatises, and philosophical statements, laws, morals… and the discourses articulated through all these" is founded in the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Charter (Rose 230). The charter contains the seven fundamental principles of Olympism, most notably "a philosophy of life exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles" and "to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity" (The Olympic Charter 2012).

The Olympic games can then be viewed as the institutional technologies, as they are the "practical techniques used to practice that power/knowledge" and produce all subjects (athletes and audiences) of the Olympic games into understanding the knowledge of the noble philosophies of the Games previously stated (230). The Olympic movement is a bizarre institution in the sense that it does not have a concrete building structure as part of its apparatus, and its technologies are constantly changing. As the location of the Olympic games change, so does the emphasis on which truth claim is most effectively and adamantly articulated. These claims are articulated through the various forms of promotions, advertisements, and architecture pertaining to the Olympics, which are unique with every new location of the Olympic games. The originality of each Olympic campaign also allows for the articulation of the inimitable culture of the host city and nation.

The London 2012 campaign and promotion of the Olympics has been a completely media oriented institutional technology. While embodying the lofty ideals and goals of the Olympic movement, London 2012 utilizes multi-modal and interactive texts to negotiate the importance of sport participation by youth while simultaneously promoting London's unique cultural identity as a "global" city. These texts are used to persuade audiences of all ages, but focuses on the younger generation of the city. The use of interactive texts appeals to the younger generation by allowing them to customize the visual texts to suit their preferred meanings, effectively interpellating them to embody the deeper meaning behind the visual representation. Additionally, a semiotic analysis of the various "Back the Bid" posters, as well as other forms of Olympic advertisement, reveal the complex relationships between promoting London, global unity, and sporting competition.

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