With less than two weeks left before the XXX Olympics (hold your snickers) kick off on July 27th, brands that paid big bucks to be involved are getting their names out there in every way possible while those who didn’t unload their wallets are keeping busy figuring out how they can capitalize on all those eyeballs without getting themselves into any kind of trouble. But first, a word from an Olympics sponsor:

McDonald’s Succumbs to Chip Pressure

Britain, of course, is known for its fine fish and chips so it seemed like blasphemy, especially to the workers at this year’s Games, that the only fries that would be available in Olympic venues would be sold by American fast-food giant McDonald’s — which is, of course, an official IOC sponsor — at its temporary restaurants on the Olympics site. Following an outcry, the London 2012 Organizing Committee has agreed to allow other vendors of chips on the premises, which comes as good news to the 800 food vendors who can now sell their chips to Olympics visitors and personnel. It's not a huge chip off the shoulders of McDonald's UK, which projects that revenue from Olympics sales will represent less than 0.1% of its annual sales.Continue reading...

Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho was the FIFA World Player of the Year back in 2004 and 2005, but the 32-year-old is starting to show his age a bit and didn’t even get placed on the nation’s Olympic team. He left his last club team, Flamengo, and sued them, only to be countersued.

Now he’s got another problem. He has a sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola that paid him $750,000 annually through 2014. That should be a good thing, right? Well, it was until Ronaldinho was spotted having a cola at a news conference. A Pepsi cola. Not his strongest move.Continue reading...

Gone are the glory days when the world's superpowers would boycott the Olympic games in their entirety to send a message to a rival. Today, friction between the world's most powerful nations is economic, not nuke-based, and the Olympics is getting an age-appropriate controversy between America and China.

“[T]hey should take all the outfits, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over.” From The Wall Street Journal, that was US Senate Majority Leader and Democrat Harry Reid's response when he learned that Team USA's Ralph Lauren-designed opening ceremony uniforms were "Made in China." Nike, Team China's uniformer, better hope the nation doesn't retaliate with some kind of good old Cold War mutually assured destruction theory.Continue reading...

The horrific actions of former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky have gripped a nation since he was arrested last fall and found guilty of 45 counts of child abuse a month ago. Now it is Penn State’s turn.

The release of former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s independent report Thursday morning is a major blow to the PSU brand, with one immediate fallout: Nike immediately reversed its November decision to stand by Sandusky's former boss, the late Joe Paterno, whose name graces a childcare center at its global HQ.

Before the report's release, even with the Sandusky talk swirling before his trial and conviction, the University managed to raise millions of dollars. In fact, the 2011-12 fiscal year had the school bringing in the second-highest annual fundraising tally in its history: a whopping $208.7 million.

It remains to be seen how much money comes PSU’s way now that its former leaders are more in the public eye than Sandusky, who has now been entered into American criminal lore as one of the most clued-out offenders of all time — and protected. As the Freeh report on Penn State's role states in one damning sentence, "In short, nothing was done and Sandusky was allowed to continue with impunity."Continue reading...

While many global marketers are aiming Olympics-related campaigns at young consumers, the real core of TV watchers of London's Summer Olympics are expected to be older Gen X-ers and boomers. Those generations also struggle more than younger ones with obesity and other health issues.

All of that may be why Coca-Cola is using its Olympics sponsorship to do more than promote its new global "Move to the Beat" campaign, which is aimed at teens. Another new initiative by Coke is highlighting active lifestyles by centering on an "eight-pack" of athletes even though the first one revealed — Shawn Johnson — won't be competing in London following her recent surprise retirement from the sport.

In a challenging time in America for soft drink brands, led by New York City's proposed ban on large soft drinks, Coke is hoisting a healthy living banner into the London 2012 Olympics with a campaign which claims that — despite being dismissed as overcaloric sugar water by many health critics — the brand actually has an association with healthy lifestyles.Continue reading...

After this weekend, a whole slew of Major League Baseball’s biggest names will be heading to Kansas City for next week’s All-Star Game. And when you’ve got a bunch of big names together, marketers can’t be far behind.

While the July 10th game itself will have plenty of Your Brand Here Moments for the FOX cameras, some advertisers aren’t waiting for Tuesday’s game to attach their name to the 2012 event.

State Farm is sponsoring the HomeRun Derby on July 9th on ESPN. Firestone sponsored the final fan Twitter vote that will get the last few players onto the team. All-Star voting is a bit more of a popularity contest than anything else and the final hours of fan support can be frenetic. What better time for a marketer to get its name in front of a massive amount of eyeballs?

Chevrolet, which is not coincidentally the official vehicle of Major League Baseball, is also getting itself out into the public eye early by bringing a fleet of its 2013 cars, trucks, and crossovers out to K.C. to showcase to baseball fans (and whoever else wants to take a gander).

"We're looking forward to introducing our family of Chevrolet vehicles to current and new customers in Kansas City, and celebrating our shared love of baseball," stated Phil Caruso, Chevrolet national promotions manager. "We will have product displays, ride and drives and other activities around Kansas City to enhance the fan and customer experience."

Coca-Cola US today released it latest London 2012 Olympics Commercial: "Support Our Athletes." As part of the campaign, Coke is featuring an "eight-pack" of American athletes — Shawn Johnson, Henry Cejudo, Alex Morgan, John Isner, David Boudia, David Oliver, Marlen Esparaza, and Jessica Long — in a My Coke Rewards Olympics contest.

Johnson, who retired from gymnastics on June 3rd, was featured in her own Coke spotlight video (see below) two weeks ago and will be covering the Summer Games as a "correspondent" for another of her sponsors, P&G, which last week announced a grant of $75,000 for youth sports development in U.S. gymnastics .Continue reading...

Olympic sponsor Adidas has unveiled the next phase of its Olympic 'Take the Stage' campaign, above. The focus of the spot is Team Great Britain athletes in what's being called the brand's biggest-ever marketing spend. According to Brand Republic, "It's being supported by a large-scale digital output across a dedicated site, www.adidas.com/all2012, Facebook and Twitter, using the handle @adidasUK, with a dedicated hashtag #takethestage, which will run for the next six weeks." Below, check out the official London 2012 Predator shoe and a new addition to Stella McCartney's Team GB Olympics kit — a rain cape.Continue reading...