Olympic sponsors paid big money for the Beijing Games. So where are all the ads?

But corporate executives have few good options as they are pulled between the world’s two largest economies. Stay silent, and risk alienating consumers in places like the US. Pull back, and potentially damage their prospects in the vast Chinese market.

All of the NBA's official Chinese partners have suspended ties with the league

International companies are familiar with the risks. Last year, Nike (NKE), H&M (HNNMY) and other Western brands faced a boycott in China because of a stand they took against the alleged use of forced labor in Xinjiang. And in 2019, comments made by the Houston Rockets’ then-general manager in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong threatened billions of dollars in business between the NBA and China.

The sensitivities leave companies treading on thin ice, according to Dipanjan Chatterjee, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester (FORR) in charge of brand strategy.

He described the upcoming Games as “an upside-down Olympics.”

“This is a very, very unusual year,” Chatterjee told CNN Business. “Typically at this time of the year, you know, all the brands are all agog with excitement because the Olympics is right around the corner … Instead, what you’ve found is that they’ve retreated into their shells.”

People in personal protective kits walking past a Winter Olympics display on Wednesday in Beijing.

Mark DiMassimo, the founder and creative chief of DiGo, an advertising agency in New York, said sponsors appear to be downplaying their involvement, at least in the lead-up to the Games.

“You don’t see the typical promotion of their Olympics advertising in advance. You’d be typically seeing it at this time, and we’re not,” he said. “I think they’re trying not to make themselves the story.”

Rising tension

The US was soon joined in its diplomatic boycott by the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Denmark, which each announced they would not be sending any government delegations to the events, citing human rights concerns in China. Japan and the Netherlands have also said their senior officials will not attend, though they have not described their actions as a boycott.

China, for its part, has called on the international community to “depoliticize” sports and warned that countries could “pay the price for their mistaken acts.” The Chinese government has also repeatedly and vehemently denied all allegations of human rights abuses.

But for businesses, the diplomatic firestorm set off a gigantic scramble, according to DiMassimo.

There were “lots of late-night Zoom calls and meetings as advertisers tried to figure out what to do,” he said, referring to the aftermath of the US boycott.

A worker cleaning a section of the Olympic Green in front of the Beijing Olympic Tower on Wednesday.

Even before then, pressure was rising. Sophie Richardson, China director of Human Rights Watch, said her team wrote an open letter to Coca-Cola last May, asking if it had conducted a human rights review in China in light of its participation in the Games.

Coke did not respond, which was “disappointing,” Richardson said, arguing that the company was demonstrating “double standards.”

“It will defend voting rights, for example, in the United States, where it’s relatively easy and cost-free, and presumably in their calculations, maybe makes them look even better,” she added, referring to Coca-Cola’s intervention after a controversial voting law in Georgia was passed last year.