The Global Advertising &Promotion Efforts

In this case , obviously spot advertising becomes the main promotional vehicle

Both strategies are useful in reaching global markets , if the sporting event is big enough . Viewers ' passion for their sports teams and athletes can run very deep . In addition , sports is seen as having universal appeal and , at least with its focus on individual achievement is apolitical and safe in that it does not raise controversial issues of social power and inequity ( Jacobson and Mazur , 1995 , 111 . Countries importing sports images may find these images less objectionable and culturally imperialistic

than American movies or TV situation comedies One U .S . media executive concluded about global sports that "If you are a foreign country worried about importing American ideology , the safest thing you can buy is sports programming and Disney ( Hofmeister and Hall , 1995 , A12

The Olympics have become an especially powerful form of global sponsorship and advertising . Despite the amateur connotation of the Games , the modern Olympics have literally always been accepting of advertisers ' advances . The program for the 1896 Games featured an ad for Kodak and Coca-Cola began its association with the Games in 1928 Stotlar , 1993 , 35

The commercialism of the Olympics took a geometric leap forward with the 1984 Los Angeles Games , however . That year the Games turned a 1 billion deficit that the 1976 Montreal Games experienced into a 215 million profit (Manning , 1987

The change in fortunes was not achieved by decreasing the expensive spectacle of the Games , but by bringing in more sponsorship revenue . But there was a promotional price to be paid for that additional money . The depth and breadth of involvement by sponsors in the Games significantly increased in Los Angeles in 1984 and this involvement was even more visible in Barcelona in 1992

Corporations could choose to sponsor various elements...