Corporate sponsors of the Torch are feeling the heat:

Sponsors of Olympic Torch Caught in Tibet Protests
[ www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28...-torch.html ]

The disruption of a Chinese official’s address during the Olympic torch lighting ceremonies in Greece last week was just the beginning of a string of protests planned to coincide with the torch’s trip around the globe.

Monday’s incident was “like lighting a fuse that is going to burn from now until the Olympics in Beijing,” said Paul Bourke, an officer of the Australian Tibet Council, a pro-Tibet group. The torch relay is “really giving a focus to groups like ours around the world for the next three months.”

Groups have decried China’s policies in other areas, particularly Darfur. But the pro-Tibet network, spread around the world, is more organized and interconnected than other groups, and advertising consultants and political scientists, say its influence is expected to keep the issue of autonomy and violence in Tibet front and center for weeks.

That is troubling news for sponsors of the torch relay, including Coca-Cola, Lenovo and Samsung Electronics. Advertising analysts estimate the companies have paid as much as $15 million each to sponsor the relay.

“What started off as a small number of organizations threatening to create some disruption has escalated significantly,” said Dan Parr, the head of Asia-Pacific for brandRapport, a marketing consulting agency. “This must be taking some of the gloss off for some of these sponsors.”

A well-organized and far-reaching band of Tibet support groups is galvanizing around the torch relay. The torch moves next to Beijing, then to Almaty, Kazakhstan; Istanbul; St. Petersburg, Russia; London; Paris; San Francisco; and Buenos Aires, before heading to Africa and the Middle East. It then goes through Asia and Australia, before winding its way through Chinese provinces, including Tibet, before the start of the Olympics in August. Planning is under way for protests in most of the major cities outside China.

The communications manager for Coca-Cola, Kerry Kerr, said, “We are keeping an eye on the situation,” but added that the company was not involved in picking the cities involved in the relay.

“We feel that using the torch relay to put political pressure on China is not appropriate,” Ms. Kerr said. Still, Coke has had several meetings with protest groups, she said, and is sharing the groups’ concerns with the International Olympic Committee.

Coca-Cola is not speaking directly with the Chinese government on the issue.

In a written statement, another sponsor, Samsung Electronics of South Korea, said the company “has been in good-faith dialogue with activist groups, and has also been in regular communication with the International Olympic Committee.”

Lenovo, a Chinese PC maker, did not respond to several requests for comment.

“These type of protests can cause deep heartache,” even though they may not always translate directly into sales figures, said Eric Denzenhall, the president of a crisis public relations firm in Washington.

Companies have changed everything from same-sex benefits packages to animal testing practices to where they obtain their lumber in response to protests. Some have ended involvement with politically unpopular countries.

Barclays Bank, for example, was the first British company to pull out of South Africa, in 1986, after anti-apartheid activists and students protested its investments there. The bank’s share of the student loan market in Britain had fallen significantly while protesters were pressuring it to withdraw.

None of the dozen advocates contacted suggested that Coca-Cola or other sponsors should pull out of the torch relay. But even former members of pro-Tibetan groups say they are looking for some sign the sponsors are aware of the criticisms of the Chinese government.

Advertisers like Coca-Cola “have to have some responsibility to humanity” and have to react to the current events, said Ramneek Bhogal, an assistant professor at the Palmer College of Chiropractic, in Davenport, Iowa, who as a student, led a chapter of Students for a Free Tibet.

Protest groups have been particularly incensed at the relay’s planned route through Tibet and over Mount Everest, contending that the routing will ignite more violence. Many groups are calling for a change of the route, but so far both the Beijing organizers and the International Olympic Committee say it will continue as planned.

From the beginning, sponsors and planners of the Beijing Olympics have worked out their marketing campaigns with care, often emphasizing social causes.

Coca-Cola’s torch campaign, for example, is focused on environmental champions. General Electric ads promote clean-water technologies and solar power. Analysts say the focus on social responsibility is aimed at deflecting criticism that could come from being associated with China’s more controversial environmental and human rights policies.

Violence flared in Tibet after monks staged protests on March 10, the anniversary of a failed uprising against China. Tibetan groups say that protesters were beaten and arrested, and in some cases killed. They assert that more than 100 have been killed since March 10.

The Chinese government puts the number of dead at 19. Violence spread through the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, and shops and buildings were burned. More than 600 people have surrendered in association with the violence, the government says.

Reports of violence in Tibet and a heavy-handed Chinese reaction spread quickly, pushing Tibetan support groups to action.

Assessing the total number of active Tibetan supporters worldwide is difficult. One umbrella organization, the International Tibet Support Network, connects more than 150 support groups worldwide, and estimates that its groups alone have 250,000 paid-up members.

“To a lot of people, Tibet has this mythic power, this Shangri-La image,” said John Ackerly, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, which is based in Washington.

Officers of Tibet support groups say they have been receiving calls from consultants representing advertisers.

“We’ve spoken to a number of risk-analysis companies who have contacted us, who refuse to reveal their clients, but have strongly indicated they are concerned,” said Alison Reynolds, the director of the International Tibet Support Network.

The risk-analysis companies are wondering, Ms. Reynolds said, what the group is planning next.

According to the article below, Beijing is hoping for a "respite" from negative publicity - at least for one day - during the official arrival of the Olympic Torch in Beijing on Monday.

Drama as torch arrival set for Tiananmen; expected respite from protests
Associated Press
[ www.iht.com/articles/ap/...h-Arrival.php ]

BEIJING: Usually an event free of conflict, the arrival of the Olympic flame on Monday will be must-watch drama at Tiananmen Square.

The ceremony in the heart of Beijing will be a welcome but brief respite for the communist government before the torch relay sets off on a problematic, month-long world tour.

The torch relay was blemished before it even began when a demonstrator at the lighting ceremony in Greece grabbed headlines by disrupting a Chinese official's opening address. That was followed across Greece by a smattering of protests by Tibet activists and Falun Gong supporters.

The flame's arrival on an Air China flight — the plane had a specially designed stand to hold the torch — comes as the outside world watches deadly anti-China rioting in Tibet and red-robed monks defying police to speak out against Chinese rule.

Overwhelming security makes protests Monday unlikely, with details about the ceremony kept scant. However any disruption or security crackdown — coming in China's capital and not distant, isolated Tibet — would shake confidence that August's Games can prevent such incidents during the Olympics.

The respite is unlikely to last long.

The Olympics have overwhelming support inside China. All media in the nation are state-controlled and most people are both patriotic about the games and supportive of the government line on Tibet: the rioting was encouraged by Dalai Lama supporters who want to ruin the Olympics and embarrass China.

The flame goes Tuesday to Almaty, Kazakhstan, and then on to Istanbul and St. Petersburg, Russia. These stops are not expected to bring problems, but the following three certainly will: London, Paris and San Francisco.

London's route on April 6 is sure to be lined by thousands of demonstrators, who are expected to enact a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate those killed in Tibet. The Tibetan government in exile says 140 died, and China says 22.

Pro-Tibet demonstrators are expected to be just as numerous in Paris on April 7. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is the first European leader to suggest that a boycott of the opening ceremony is possible.

In San Francisco, the only North American city hosting the torch, officials shortened the April 9 route through the city and have abbreviated the ceremonies. Mayor Gavin Newsom has said no one will be prevented from expressing their views, but permits are required to gather near the torch.

Another difficult stop comes April 17 in New Delhi. India is home to Tibet's exile government and many Tibet rights groups are located in the country. Protests are also expected on April 24 in Canberra, Australia, and security is being tightened for the April 26 leg in Nagano, Japan.

On Saturday, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang was forced to respond to a report that China would send troops to Australia to protect the torch relay.

"It's purely a rumor with ulterior motives," Qin said on the foreign ministry's Web site.

United States President George W.Bush and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Friday they want China leaders to meet with the Dalai Lama to defuse tensions.

"It is absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet," said Rudd, who served as a diplomat in China and speaks Mandarin.

The flame returns to mainland China on May 4, and will spend the next three months traveling to more than 100 cities across the country. This includes a problematic trip to the summit of Mount Everest, at an unspecified date in May when weather permits. Everest straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet.

The grandiose relay — the longest in Olympic history with the most torchbearers — was meant to showcase China's rising economic and political power, and its sovereignty over disputed areas like Tibet.

Instead, it has provided a stage for human rights activists, Muslims in the far west of the country and critics of China's relationship with Sudan. It has also helped focus attention on the greatest unrest in China since the crushing of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement in 1989.

Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as part of its territory, is missing from the relay.

Taiwan was excluded after its leaders declined to guarantee that Taiwanese flags and other signs of separateness from China would be kept away from the relay route. Taiwan officials also wanted the relay to enter and depart from Asian neighbors such as Vietnam or Japan to avoid suggesting that the island is under mainland control. China wanted the torch to depart for Beijing-controlled Hong Kong.

The torch returns to Beijing on Aug. 6, the preface to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron on Aug. 8 during the opening ceremony at the 91,000-seat national stadium.

Negative attention to the torch relay may be bad news for the three sponsors of the relay — Coca-Cola, Lenovo and Samsung Electronics — who have spent tens of millions to raise their profile in China and ingratiate themselves with communist officials.

"We can only guess that maybe other controversies may come up around the games in the next few months," said Chris Renner, president for China of sports marketing consulting firm Helios Partners. Its clients include Olympic sponsors Volkswagen AG, mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd., and Lenovo.

"It's a tough situation for everyone."