Tibetan organizations protesting the Chinese crackdown in the Himalayas are turning up the pressure against corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics. A prime target is Coca-Cola (KO), co-sponsor of the Beijing Olympic torch relay. The most ambitious in the history of the modern games, the 2008 relay began on Mar. 24 in Olympia, Greece, and will go to 21 countries and involve more than 21,000 torchbearers by the time it reaches Beijing for the Summer Games’ opening ceremony on Aug. 8. Coke, along with Chinese computer company Lenovo and South Korean electronics giant Samsung, has spent millions of dollars (the companies won’t disclose the exact amounts) to sponsor the relay. Lenovo designed the torch and provided free laptops to Olympic officials. Samsung plans to pass out Samsung flags in all 134 cities along the route. Coke nominated 100 environmental activists to serve as torchbearers.

Full Business Week cover story here: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2008/gb20080327_454941.htm?link_position=link1

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.