'AT&T Welcomes the World,' announced the giant sign above the Global Olympic Village at Olympic Centennial Park. Although international corporations had built the park to call attention to themselves, 'sponsor footprints' like the AT&T tower 'were not just advertisements', explained Billy Payne, chairman of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games: they showcased 'state-of-the-art technology' that 'people will be seeing for the first time'. The Coca-Cola Corporation built its Olympic City entertainment centre at the northern edge of the park. CNN headquarters - the property value of which increased by 26 percent with the building of the park - lay just to the south-west. On 27 July, film footage carried by CNN displayed first the AT&T Welcome to the World, then beneath it the flash of a bomb.

LRB 5 September 1996 | PDF Download