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China Protests Singe Torch Sponsor Lenovo

Posted Apr 14, 08 10:42 AM CDT in World,  Business,  Technology 

(Newser) – Lenovo execs were hoping for some major branding momentum from winning the Olympic torch design competition—not to mention from plunking down some $100 million as sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Games. What they got was anti-China vitriol that has accompanied the torch around the globe, and a marketing campaign fast going up in smoke, reports the Wall Street Journal.

"I just didn't anticipate something like that happening," says the marketing chief for the world’s fourth-largest computer maker, which bought IBM’s PC division in 2005 and controls 30% of the Chinese PC market. Lenovo bristles at being called “the Chinese PC company,” says its American CEO. But, analysts say, “China” as a brand is in for a rough ride in the coming months.

Source Wall Street Journal

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Employees prepare computers on display at the Lenovo headquarters in Beijing, in this Aug. 8, 2007 photo.   (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
Gabriela Sabatini carries the Olympic torch in Buenos Aires, Friday. Runners flanked by rows of security tried to reverse weeks of bad publicity for the host of the Summer Games.   (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
In this composite image released by Lenovo the torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay is seen in Beijing, in March 2007.   (AP Photo/Lenovo)
William Amelio, president and CEO of Lenovo Group Ltd., attends the Committee of 100 Conference on Friday, April 20, 2007 in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
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2008 Beijing Olympics  • Tibet  • Olympic torch  • Samsung  • Coca Cola  • Lenovo  • Richard Gere


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