Official sponsors of the Beijing 2008 Olympics include Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), China Mobile (NYSE:CHL), Yili, Mengniu and Adidas. To the dismay of event organizers, however, a recent survey of Chinese citizens suggests that, due to some clever ambush marketing, they associate other brands with the games.A good example of these ambush campaigns is the "I love Beijing" message being pushed by YUM Brands' (NYSE:YUM) KFC which leverages the pride born of the huge investment in the city to prepare it for the world audience. Also, the China Mengniu Dairy Company has created a skills competition game show, "Around the Cities," that viewers seem to associate with the Olympic competition.
In fact, of the top 12 companies named by the public as Olympic-affiliated, only five actually were. The most mentioned non-sponsors, in order: Pepsi (NYSE:PEP), China Unicom (NYSE:CHU), Budweiser (NYSE:BUD), Nike (NYSE:NKE), and Mengniu.
I can't help but feel a bit of schadenfreude for a country that treated intellectual property so casually for so long. I'll watch with great interest to see how, and if, the government will react to this brand dilution. Perhaps it will provide them a template for dealing with those who pilfer American brands.
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