The sudden corporate adoration for Olympic champion Joseph Schooling has gotten so bad that the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) has spoken out against using his victory to market products.
Wanna know just how bad his Olympic gold is being exploited? Incidents of shameless jumping on his coattails include fast food brands giving out free food in Schooling’s name, as well as various promotions and discounts that have nothing to do with the Olympics.
All par for the course — everyone’s happy about a native Singaporean winning glory for his country in a big, big way. Who wouldn’t jump on the opportunity, anyway? He’s young, he’s good-looking, he’s charming, and he’s a freakin’ winner.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), however, aren’t too happy with the blatant lengths corporations are going to to associate themselves with Schooling, The New Paper reported.
The Olympics brand police didn’t hesitate in their ongoing Rule 40 crackdowns, hunting down infringement of intellectual property rights and rights-holding broadcasters. In other words, they’re clamping down on over-commercialisation and ambush marketing.
“Too many brands are riding on Joseph’s coattails not having paid a single dollar to him,” said R Sasikumar, the managing director of sports marketing agency Red Card Group.
“Some have taken out full-page ads in the papers, where before they’ve not supported local sports. This is ambush marketing,” he said.
SNOC has since written to multiple commercial entities, warning them to refrain from using Olympic-related images to market their own products.
Even Schooling himself hasn’t had time to look through offers of commercial endorsements, saying he’ll think about them after all the hullaballoo has died down.
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