Reebok scales back Olympic hospitality
Beijing's requests derail sneaker company's plans
Reebok International Ltd. and its corporate parent, Adidas Group, one of the Olympic sponsors, are dropping plans for a hospitality facility to host athletes, guests, and the media at the summer games in Beijing because of logistical demands made by the Chinese government.
Reebok, which has a major marketing campaign built around Chinese basketball star and Reebok endorser Yao Ming, said there also is a slim chance the brand will be able to host a public event with the local hero in Beijing, as the company had initially planned, according to Josie Stevens, Reebok's director of global public relations. The Canton sneaker company is now considering other options, including holding an event in Houston, where Ming has been getting physical therapy since a knee injury earlier this year.
"It was being made rather difficult. It was proving a challenge on the ground in terms of getting all the logistics and practicalities being asked of us," said Stevens, who declined to provide details on the planning challenges. "It was a difficult decision."
Reebok typically has a hospitality facility at the Olympics to host about 100 people daily. Reebok, which is outfitting 250 athletes, initially planned to share a facility with Adidas at a local school but neither will move forward with the plans.
These logistical difficulties, along with controversy over human-rights violations by the Chinese government, also led Reebok to decide against making these athletes available for press conferences or one-on-one interviews during the games.
Instead, Reebok plans to contract with a video news service to have a mobile film crew interview athletes and distribute content to media organizations.
"As a brand, we didn't want to put our athletes in the position when being interviewed of having to explain their personal views on the human-rights issue, and we also didn't want to act as a censor either," Stevens said.
Don Hinchey, a spokesman for Bonham Group, a Denver sports and entertainment marketing firm, said everyone involved in the Aug. 8-24 Olympics is on "pins and needles" about how they can and should conduct business in Beijing with more stringent restrictions than ever before in Olympic history for journalists, athletes, and businesses sponsoring the games.
"If brands highlight athletes prominently, it could lead to embarrassment for athletes and a sponsoring company because of policies of the Chinese government over human-rights issues," Hinchey said.
Reebok has long made human rights a core tenet of the company, beginning with its decision to pull out of a profitable business in South Africa in 1986 to protest apartheid. The Canton business has been giving out human rights awards since 1988 to honor young people around the world who have fought injustices and was the first company to be accredited by the Fair Labor Association for its program to improve conditions for footwear factory workers.
Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.
