Should brands boycott the Olympics?

Athletes try and keep politics out of things. Governments obviously don’t. And when it comes to boycotts, well, not much an athlete can do. Especially with the Olympics. Which sucks for those who’ve spent their entire career waiting for this moment. But let’s assume Hillary’s call goes unheard, torches don’t keep getting extinguished and athletes keep endorsing. That doesn’t erase China’s human rights policies. Something Google knows all too well. As do a bunch of companies doing business there. Risk losing all that green—or go with the flow.

Never underestimate the importance of local knowledge pressure indeed.

Reading Drudge each day, it’s obvious the protesters have brought their A game. It’s then I find myself hitting the PREV button in my mind back to last summer, when a very American brand I work on was moving ahead with plans for an Olympic promotion. Until internal focus groups they ran showed 80% of their customers surveyed agreed with what we said, that this would be a bad idea. (But hey, what do creatives know, right?)

So that aside, should brands disassociate themselves from a Beijing tie-in if this keeps up? Or should we all just STFU, have a Coke and a smile and watch NBC crucify the TV coverage again?

Tags: Beijing protest