Beijing Olympics: Winners and Losers

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A few other executives are no doubt gloating over their early sponsorships with swimmer Phelps. They include Speedo, Omega, PowerBar, AT&T (T), PureSport, Hilton Hotels (HLT), Kellogg (K), and Visa (V). "I wish I were that smart—to have foreseen the remarkable achievements that Michael has accomplished," says Michael O'Hara Lynch, head of global sponsorship marketing at Visa, which helped sign up Phelps six years ago.

So what does Phelps get apart from sponsorship deals that some estimate could be worth up to $6 million to $10 million annually? Interviewed at a 360-year-old Qing Dynasty courtyard complex after the swimming competition, Phelps admits he still gets a thrill from simply being in a commercial. "When you grow up, you see commercials like in the Super Bowl and you think, 'Wow, that's pretty cool,'" he says. "And you see all these athletes in these commercials, and I wanted to be in a commercial…it's something you always dream of, and when you have the opportunity to do it, it's just really exciting."

Not all the sponsors had good luck. Nike (NKE) pumped big bucks into an advertising campaign with Chinese track star Liu Xiang. But then an injured Liu unexpectedly dropped out of his signature event (BusinessWeek.com, 8/18/08), the 110-meter hurdles.

Chinese government—qualified winner

For pulling off a safe and exciting Games unmarred by terrorist incident (BusinessWeek.com, 7/28/08), the Chinese government is a qualified winner. Beijing deserves kudos for constructing in record time an impressive collection of functional and beautiful Olympic venues, from the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube to the NBA-quality Wukesong basketball arena. And against all odds, a big win to Beijing for ensuring that the city's notoriously bad air was relatively clean for the duration of the Games.

The some 30,000 journalists who came from around the world to Beijing for the Games are likely to now have a less-biased view of China, one already reflected in reports they have sent to the world. The Ogilvy & Mather survey also reported that 25% of Chinese believe the most important outcome of the Games will be a better understanding of China in the West. That would go some way toward overcoming inaccurate foreign stereotypes of China still as a backward, tightly controlled police state. Vast changes have made the lives of most Chinese far better and freer than ever before.

Chinese openness—big loser

However, Beijing made a mockery of its promises to allow greater openness (BusinessWeek.com, 8/22/08) during the Games. Not only did the government lock up eight Americans (for Tibet independence protests) but at least 50 Beijing human-rights activists were either arrested, put under house arrest, or banished from the capital during the Games. Beijing also deserves condemnation for its false promises. After pledging unfettered access to the Internet, the government blocked sites on everything from Tibet to iTunes. And, after officials designated three municipal parks as special protest zones where they said dissenters would be free to express themselves, they admitted not a single protest had been allowed, although they received 77 applications from would-be protesters. Indeed, 15 Chinese—including two women in their late 70s upset about being evicted from their homes—were arrested simply for applying to protest. "We encourage the government of China to demonstrate respect for human rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of religion, of all people during the Olympic Games and beyond," the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said in a statement on Aug. 24. "We are disappointed that China has not used the occasion of the Olympics to demonstrate greater tolerance and openness."