Advertising, Public Relations, 2008 Beijing Olympics Public Case Study

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.....