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Big Sponsors Are Upset Over Visibility at Olympics
Wall Street Journal ^ | 8/13/08 | REBECCA BLUMENSTEIN and MEI FONG

Posted on 08/13/2008 1:27:42 PM PDT by BurbankKarl

China may be a land of crowds, but not at its Olympic Green.

Some major Olympic sponsors that invested millions of dollars to pitch their brands from elaborately constructed pavilions are fuming because access to the Green -- usually the main focal and gathering point of most Games -- has been strictly limited.

Citing security concerns, Beijing Olympics officials have turned away droves of spectators who are curious to see the Green with day passes. For the most part, the only people who have been allowed inside are those with hard-to-get tickets to the venues along the Green.

Sponsors like Lenovo, Samsung, Adidas and Coca-Cola, have set up elaborate corporate "experiences," complete with neon lights, giant-screen TVs and music acts.

But the crowds were sparse, even at 8 p.m. Tuesday, when the Games were in full swing. A small line of people stood outside the Coke exhibit, where dry ice and the sound of gurgling soda pop drifted out. Meanwhile, a giant restaurant erected by McDonald's at the end of the Green has been far from packed.

The Olympic Green is a massive space that is surrounded by Olympic venues including the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, and is the site of swimming, gymnastics, archery and many other sports. As the organizers intended, it is big -- six times the size of the Green in Athens and three times the size of New York's Central Park.

Several high-profile sponsors were expecting 200,000 visitors a day and instead have seen just 20% of that, making it very difficult to justify costs that surpass $150 million, according to people close to the situation.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2008olympics; china; olympics; sponsors
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1 posted on 08/13/2008 1:27:42 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
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To: BurbankKarl

ATTENTION EVERYONE!

China is a COMMUNIST country. They do not care about the marketing plans of “western” corporations.

Is Captain Obvious around here anywhere?


2 posted on 08/13/2008 1:30:14 PM PDT by WayneS (Don't Blame Me, I voted for Kodos!)
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To: WayneS

London will suffer.

GM is already pulling out of Olympic advertising when the torch extinguishes.


3 posted on 08/13/2008 1:31:02 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
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To: WayneS

they should care, many of those products are made right there in china


4 posted on 08/13/2008 1:32:07 PM PDT by absolootezer0 ( Detroit: we're so bad, even our mayor is a criminal)
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To: BurbankKarl

Hey I am doing my part here.....I may not be checking out their products on ‘The Green’ but I sure have to endure the commercials every 6 minutes or so.....LOL!


5 posted on 08/13/2008 1:36:00 PM PDT by BossLady (People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own soul. ~Carl Jung)
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To: BurbankKarl
money doesn't buy everything... even in Commie-ville.

Don't expect the summer Games to return there in the next 100+ years.

As a KO (Coca-Cola) stock holder... I didn't want my investment to flow to that hole of a country to begin with... I don't care if China is an "emerging" market - they're govt. is stoked with a bunch of West-hating, but dead president loving hypocrites.

6 posted on 08/13/2008 1:37:35 PM PDT by Trajan88 (www.bullittclub.com)
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To: BurbankKarl
EARTH TO IOC

Beijing does not care about the future of the Olympics, they care about this being a gigantic propaganda exercise for China. London can stick it where the sun don't shine.

How does the IOC wind up with idiots in charge all the time? It's worse than the UN...

7 posted on 08/13/2008 1:38:24 PM PDT by WarEagle (Can America survive a President named Hussein?)
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To: BurbankKarl

elaborate corporate “experiences”
elaborate corporate “experiences”
elaborate corporate “experiences”
elaborate corporate “experiences”

That phrase kind of freaks me out.


8 posted on 08/13/2008 1:42:54 PM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us)
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To: WarEagle

The IOC motto: “Take the money and run”.


9 posted on 08/13/2008 1:43:22 PM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
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To: BurbankKarl

What did they expect?


10 posted on 08/13/2008 1:43:46 PM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink)
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To: Trajan88

It will be back in China in about 20 years, now that according to the IOC standards, its a peaceful democracy.


11 posted on 08/13/2008 1:47:24 PM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
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To: BurbankKarl

Business with China only goes one way. This stuff has been hapening for 50 years. It’s amazing how the West gets itself fleeced over and over.


12 posted on 08/13/2008 1:49:42 PM PDT by karnage
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To: BurbankKarl

I’ve been told that, as a cultural characteristic, the Chinese believe that contracts are only to be honored as long as they are reaping the benefits, and that they feel free to break them once they have gotten what they wanted.


13 posted on 08/13/2008 1:53:00 PM PDT by lady lawyer
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To: BurbankKarl

China - welcome to the terrorist world you helped create.


14 posted on 08/13/2008 1:59:14 PM PDT by OrioleFan (Republicans believe every day is July 4th, but DemocRATs believe every day is April 15th. - Reagan)
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To: Trajan88
Don't expect the summer Games to return there in the next 100+ years.

Do you really think the kind of bureaucrats that run the IOC will remember any lessons they might have learned from this Olympics very long into the future.

The mantra of "yes some mistakes were made, but China is different now" will start in the not so distant future.

They will come up with an inept committee that is supposed to find ways to avoid the problems of the 2008 games. China will promise to handle such things differently. All past sins will be forgiven.

15 posted on 08/13/2008 2:50:42 PM PDT by untrained skeptic
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To: Trajan88
As a KO (Coca-Cola) stock holder... I didn't want my investment to flow to that hole of a country to begin with

As Augie Busch once said, "a billion people can drink a lot of beer."


16 posted on 08/13/2008 2:57:16 PM PDT by Nick Danger (www.swiftvets.com)
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To: WayneS
Here ya go!

Master of the Obvious

Well, it is his cousin, "Master of the Obvious" but he'll do

BTW, whatever happened to the "Emerald Nut" commecials? B-P
17 posted on 08/13/2008 3:03:54 PM PDT by Nowhere Man (Is Barak HUSSEIN Obama an Anti-Christ? - B.O. Stinks! (Robert Riddle))
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To: untrained skeptic

Don’t forget the 2014 winter olympics in Russia. I’ve heard its off to its predictable start with Putin and his Kremlin mobsters seizing all the land in the area for themselves to develop and kicking out farmers who lived there for generations without any compensation. The TV networks. The international sponsors. The organizers. I can only imagine the bribes that are going to have to be paid and harassment advertisers are going to face to do business there. I’m sure Putin’s rents will be quiet resonable......
Not to mention all the petty criminals who will flock there to nail all the visitors.
The town of Sochi is known to have a sewer sytem that explodes on a regular basis. The mountian lift system is something out of the 1950s. The budget has currently skyrocketed over 6 billion.
Another brilliant move by the ever corrupt IOC.


18 posted on 08/13/2008 3:14:35 PM PDT by Proud_USA_Republican (We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good. - Hillary Clinton)
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To: BurbankKarl
Citing security concerns, Beijing Olympics officials have turned away droves of spectators

Some "free Tibet" libtards caused problems earlier near there.

19 posted on 08/13/2008 3:22:27 PM PDT by BerryDingle (I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagan)
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To: WayneS
Photobucket
20 posted on 08/13/2008 3:26:29 PM PDT by InsensitiveConservative
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