Advertising, Public Relations, 2008 Beijing Olympics Public

Advertising, Public Relations, 2008 Beijing Olympics

Public relations are an image-shaping tool for an individual, a group, firm or country that wishes to penetrate a certain market. The need for public relations continues to grow and evolve, as the field becomes a stronger discipline. Notably, public relations are not marketing tools but rather they are essential for fostering successful marketing. In 2008, Beijing got the award to host the famous Olympics event (Brady, 2009). However, the joyful china did not expect the road to the summer of 2008 would be bumpy as they found. Politics marred the games after the awarding, through organizing, to the events and the after event period. China surprised the international community by hiring western-based public relations firms to organize events.

Why Chinese government hired a western public relations firm to organize 2008 Beijing Olympics

The awarding of the opportunity to Beijing to host, the Olympics set the Chinese government in the run to organize for the games. The Chinese government, for the longest time, earned the reputation of being a closed country, operating on its own terms only. This is despite trying to remain open to information interchange for more than a decade and accepting integration with the world. Therefore, the presentation of the Olympics moment presented an opportunity for the world to relate to china. However, despite having internal able public relation professionals, china chose two western-based firms, that is, U.S. Weber Shandwick and British Bell Pottinger to lead the organization of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Brady, 2009). The first reason they chose the western firms is due to their quality of work. In Consideration to the event being international, china wanted perfection; hence, choosing the most qualified firms to prepare the events.

Secondly, china had a bad reputation from the international community, especially due to its dealings with the Tibetan and Darfur crisis. Therefore, china needed to keep in check its image. The two firms are famous for their ability to help their clients in implementing communication strategies, building, protecting and branding the images of the clients successfully. Therefore, china chose the western firms to avert the view of the international community that she had an attitude towards the relations with the western nations. Therefore, in essence, China chose the western firms and not local or Asian-based public relation firms to play politics that would rebrand their image.

Why protestors and activists target events such as the Olympics

The mega events such as the soccer world cup and Olympics have a reputation for experiencing challenges due to protestors and activists. For instance, the Olympics in china faced gruesome protests from the Tibetans and other rights activists. This posed challenge to the organizing firms. Such protest in a major event like the Olympics portrays a bad image of the host nation (Torch relay protesters 'likened to terrorists', 2012). Hence, knowing the significance of maintaining a brand image in the countenance of the global community and the entire world; the protestors take advantage of the condition in order to hold the government at ransom so that they can have what they want. The protestors use the events to "blackmail" the government to meet their needs.

Secondly, a key step to solving any underlying issues in whichever level is to speak them out to someone who cares to listen. Therefore, the protestors and activists realize the immensity of the watch of the entire world (Leibold, 2010). Hence, protestors and activists take advantage of the presented chance to express their challenges and cries to the entire world to seek redress and sympathy from the international community. Moreover, expressing their grievances to the international community puts pressure on the government to act in their favor. For instance, the organizers of the china Olympics advised the government of china to address the protestors since they presented a setback to the organization of the games. In addition, through the protests, the world has to know what was happening in china, which most people were not aware due to the closed system of china. Therefore, the protesters and activists chose the world international events to voice their cries to the world for sympathy and support from the outside world and pressuring the host country to act.

Evaluation of the opportunity to reach a global audience by advertising during the Olympics offsets the potential for negative publicity

Many public relation personnel and firms realize the significance of hosting the international events such as the Olympics and the soccer world cup among others in marketing businesses and the country. These events facilitate global communications and the transmission of ideas and information about various issues overseas. The participants in the games come as tourists, even as they participate in games. Moreover, the international televising and live streaming of such events presents the host nation to the world outside. Therefore, this vast audience presented to the nation presents a unique advertising opportunity for global marketers to reach. Thus, the presentation of the global opportunity for all forms of advertising can have a positive impact on the image of the country if utilized accordingly. Occurrences such as the protests; however, can present negative publicity for the country. Therefore, the management of the advertising activity determines the potential publicity image created in the process. With proper management and organization, the advertising offsets the potential of negative publicity image largely.