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Johnson & Johnson drops out of sponsorship

The International Olympic Committee can’t put a Band-Aid on this financial cut: Johnson & Johnson passed on the chance to renew its lucrative global sponsorship deal.

The IOC confirmed Monday that the health care conglomerate would not renew its top-level sponsorship worth up to $100 million as first reported by Sports Business Journal.

“Our sponsorship of the International Olympic Committee concludes at the end of 2008 and will not be renewed,” Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Lorie Gawreluk e-mailed.

China, with more than 1 billion residents and a burgeoning consumer marketplace, was a major draw for most sponsors. The next two games are in Canada and the United Kingdom — mature economies that combined have about a tenth of the population of China.

For the Beijing Games, Johnson & Johnson manufactured its signature adhesive bandages with Olympic mascots on them and set up a pavilion for fans to come see terra-cotta warriors from the time of emperor Qin Shi Huang — though overzealous security on the Olympic Green kept many away.

Read the rest of the article here.

Worldwide Olympic sponsors are allowed to use the copyrighted Olympic name & logos in their advertising anywhere in the world.  But it comes with a pretty high price.   The Beijing games had 12 Worldwide sponsors, including Visa, McDonalds, and Coke.  The IOC already has agreements with 9 companies to be worldwide sponsors for the Vancouver games, including Panasonic and Samsung.  TV rights, mostly from NBC, will provide approximately another $2.5 billion.

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Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 olympics, sponsors No Comments