Instead, it has been overshadowed by an International Olympic Committee (IOC) warning that it will consider postponing events at the Games if the city’s air quality doesn’t improve.
The global media, with little hesitation, chose to focus on the quality of air, rather than the quantity of celebrity-laden sponsor events taking place in the mainland capital. It is reflective of one of Beijing’s biggest headaches as the 2008 Olympics approaches: responding to the wave of negative press that is threatening to engulf the country’s showpiece event.
Air quality is just one of the issues that the media is focusing on. A far more serious one relates to China’s presence in war-torn Darfur. A US pressure group, led by actress Mia Farrow, has made a significant impact in linking next year’s Games with China’s poor human rights track record - leading the Games’ artistic advisor Steven Spielberg to reportedly reconsider his highly-touted role.
Amid all this pressure, it appears that the Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee’s (Bocog) media relations team simply cannot cope. A damning editorial in the Olympics newsletter Around the Rings notes that “compared to past Olympics, Beijing scores close to a zero in outreach to the foreign media”. While Bocog has retained Hill & Knowlton, insiders note that the agency is hardly empowered. “It will do as good a job as it is permitted to,” says one source.
Observers note that the blame cannot really be pointed at either the agency or the client. Beijing’s inability to counter negative stories is more indicative of a culture unused to the concepts of media engagement and positioning.
“The challenge for the authorities is to find ways of dealing with these situations that don’t exacerbate the press coverage,” says a PR consultant based in China. Another source is more blunt: “If Beijing doesn’t act quickly, this could ruin its coming-out party,” he says. “And sponsors are starting to get edgy.”
The response of top-tier sponsors — such as Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and GE — may prove pivotal. But any pressure they may bring to bear on either the IOC or the mainland Government is tempered with a reluctance to ruffle too many feathers in China. “The sponsors have made a significant investment and have big business interests in China,” says a source. “Any sponsor pulling out looks like a non-starter.”
Others are less bullish, revealing that - in particular - Spielberg’s involvement in the Darfur campaign has made some sponsors very worried indeed. But for one observer, the scenario offers an unlikely opportunity. “If they can figure out better ways of engaging with these people — at least being seen to have an ear — that would buy them a lot of credit as people won’t expect much,” he says.
Set against that, however, is a prevailing mood of cynicism. “They’ll get criticised heavily no matter what they do,” says a source. “You will see a very big discrepancy between how the West communicates and how the Chinese communicate. It’s a clash of cultures.”
