Sporadic Public Relations

In my last post, The double-edged sword of Olympic sponsorship, I said this:

[Olympic sponsors] can take solace in the fact that although activists of all stripes will work to associate the Games with a variety of issues, it appears that they have, at least in the minds of the majority, not yet successfully done so.

It is arguable whether the statement was true at the time that I wrote it. It’s possible that given Spielberg’s resignation and the Uyghur “terrorist plots” among others, that some of China’s most sensitive issues have already been irreversibly tied to the Beijing Olympics. I also stated that the landscape could change; and change it did. A mere week later, we are standing on an entirely new precipice and I can say unequivocally: the statement is wrong.

In the foreign media coverage of the recent riots in Tibet, the subject of the Olympics and the effect of these events on the Games featured prominently in most stories. However, tying the riots to the Olympic Games was not only prevalent in foreign coverage but also in coverage by the Chinese media (a.k.a. the Chinese government). In fact, the Chinese government’s desire to link the events in Tibet to the Olympics has left me scratching my head.

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The high level of interest in the Olympic Games, as well as its unparalleled viewership makes the event extremely attractive to marketers. This is why official sponsors and clever guerilla marketers alike have used past Olympics as an opportunity to launch a marketing stunt that could win attention across the globe.

This time around, however, corporations would be wise to consider the possible downsides of being associated with the Olympics. While the event has been dubbed the “Green Olympics” by the Chinese government, activists have decided to go with another G-word: genocide. China’s support of the Sudanese government has dominated recent headlines but is just one of the many potential landmines sponsors could find themselves stepping on. Other issues range from the environment to Tibet to the country’s human rights record and beyond.

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