Beijing 2008 — Lip-Syncing and Firework Fakery

Beijing 2008's $100 million ceremony was tainted by a single act of fakery: a nine-year-old girl lip-synced to another child's voice deemed 'not cute enough,' while digitally inserted firework footprints never actually appeared in the sky. Over 4.2 million Chinese netizens debated the ethics online within 24 hours, and the voice-double child's family received $5,000 in compensation — a data point that underscores the ceremony's manufactured perfectionism.