Admittedly, I haven’t watched much of the Olympics, but I have read a number of articles that I found interesting regarding unofficial sponsors of the Olympics. Athletes and sponsorships are big business, and it is often entrepreneurial brands that (attempt to) find less expensive ways to capture the public’s attention at high-profile events.

These two were some of the more unique instances:

* In an official team photo of the U.S. men’s basketball team, member Dwight Howard’s footwear was obscured, as he won’t wear Nikes. I think the picture that Nike released allowed Howard’s foot to be invisible in what was probably the easiest way possible.

* Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser of sunglass company Oakley attracted a ton of attention.

At the end of the day, sponsors pay athletes a lot of money and have to insist on pushing their athletes to do all they can do to protect the brands’ investments.

Ronn Torossian
5WPR

I just finished reading PRWeek’s op-ed on the 2008 Olympics and the associated protests.  The piece’s headline says it all – “Avoiding politics is not a solid long-term game plan.”  I completely agree.

Every sponsorship initiative has inherent political risks.  If a sponsorship receives unfavorable press because of political tensions, it’s naïve for a PR professional to try and diffuse the issue by saying its client didn’t enter the sponsorship for a political purpose.

Before a corporation enters into any sponsorship or charitable arrangement – whether green initiatives, international aid, or the Olympics – potential political backlash should be taken into account and prepared for.  The larger the event or initiative, the greater the risk.

Today, politics is business and business is politics.  It’s part of the lexicon.

Ronn Torossian
5WPR

The Olympics is clearly a brand that needs to play close attention to its PR and take a few major steps in order to counter the current negative protests thriving in the media.

Thoughts:
· The Olympic Committee leadership should immediately come out front and center, separating itself from the tainted “China” brand. This needs to be seen as the worldwide Olympics, not the China Olympics.

· Despite politicized calls to the contrary, the Olympics won’t be moved, and I for one don’t believe countries will boycott the Olympics. The bottom line is that there are always contentious issues which exist. These protesters have just been very creative and are doing a good job of making their issues heard and noticed.

· Sponsors don’t spend millions of dollars for additional headaches (human rights in China, Free Tibet, etc.). They all have their own problems. Do you think Visa, or one of the other high profile sponsors, would have wanted their logo on the torch which had police surrounding it?

Quick action needs to be taken to protect the Olympics brand. The longer its leadership waits to address the issue, the more difficult it will become to uphold its reputation.