Boycott Watch  
                             
October 2, 2008
 
Beijing Olympics - Final Report
 
Summary: The Olympics boycott efforts failed, just as Boycott Watch predicted.
 
    The Thursday, September 25, 2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal reports that due to the success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, businesses are already looking forward to investing in future Olympic Games. While the quarterly reports of the main sponsors have yet to be released, this report clearly tells us that the Olympics were very profitable for advertisers, sponsors and vendors, despite the boycott calls.

    Much of the success was despite the efforts of China to make things difficult for the broadcasters. For example, broadcast crews were restricted where they could broadcast from, as well as the hours. China made sure that broadcasters only saw what they wanted the world to see. While the television broadcasters had restrictions, they also did a poor job in broadcasting, claiming events were live when they were not, sometimes just rebroadcasting events they just aired. Additional events were available on some extra cable channels, but were not advertised. To complicate matters, schedules were not advertised well, and many people did not know that YouTube was posting many events not available otherwise.

    On the Political Correctness front, events such as the Biathlon, which included sport shooting, was not aired, despite breaking news at the event. Sport shooters will tell you they are shooting paper which is "already dead," so there is no real sense of violence the networks claim, especially considering the fact that boxing actually requires inflicting injuries on ones opponent. While television network executives do not want to openly state they believe these sporting guns encourage violence, it is clear this is what they believe, despite the fact that the guns and ammunition involved are simply made to put a hole in paper, and not much more. Last we checked, human skin is tougher than paper, and the concentration needed to shoot like an Olympian is far greater than is used in the commission of a crime. In comparison, this would be like not airing NASCAR auto races because it encourages people to drive fast.

    Despite all the restrictions and problems, the Olympics broadcasts made money for everyone involved. It also lends credibility to the video survey Boycott Watch assembled, in which we asked people if they were boycotting the Olympics. In that video, people who were watching the Olympics were generally not boycotting the games or advertisers, despite knowing about the boycott, which also confirms our other reports.

    Also, Boycott Watch predicted the Olympics boycotts failed more than a month before the Olympics started. As usual, Boycott Watch was right when it came to predicting consumer trends related to consumer actions.
 
 
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