At Beijing 2022, ‘woke capital’ in awkward spot on human rights
Airbnb’s “community” section reads like a who’s who of progressive causes in the United States.To get more news about
beijing 2022 olympic winter games, you can visit shine news official website.
The short-term rental giant has donated to Black Lives Matter, provided housing to Afghan refugees, and boasts top marks on a corporate equality index as an inclusive employer.The top feature on its English-language news page is an article, dated February 2, about an Airbnb rental in Los Angeles hosted by American actress Issa Rae, who is known for speaking out against racial injustice and inequality.
Missing from Airbnb’s website, Twitter or Instagram is any mention of the company’s official sponsorship of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which have been underway since Friday.Airbnb is not the only official Olympics sponsor that appears to be downplaying its role at the Winter games – at least in English – following a diplomatic boycott by countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania over human rights abuses against ethnic minority Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region and pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong.
The social media accounts of sponsors such as Snickers and Bridgestone, the Japanese auto parts company, have chosen to highlight the Super Bowl over the Olympics, while Black History Month ranks higher on the Instagram account of US multinational Procter and Gamble.Multinational corporations’ tepid association with the Games highlights the awkward position that firms can face when dabbling in social justice issues – a trend dubbed “woke capitalism” – whose appeal to consumers varies widely by geography.
Many official sponsors appear to be running “bifurcated campaigns” that see them running one campaign in China around the Olympics and different campaigns elsewhere, according to Rick Burton, who served as chief marketing officer for the US Olympic Committee at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games.Are sponsors using Olympic imagery worldwide? And are they using it as aggressively as they have in the past? And I think the short answer is no, they’re not,” Burton told Al Jazeera, citing a host of reasons ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the fact that the Tokyo Summer Olympics and Paralympics ended just six months ago.
Burton said that despite the controversy surrounding the Winter Olympics, brands likely knew what they were signing up for from the start.
“In Rio de Janeiro, the displacement of the poor and the pollution and the use of funds to build sporting facilities when there was poverty caused people to want sponsors to protest or boycott,” he said. “In Sochi, Russia, the same existed on the topic of gay rights, and it now exists in China, based on human rights reporting or human rights beliefs.”
American companies, in particular, are facing a challenge beyond the diplomatic boycott as the Winter Olympics coincides with the Super Bowl — the most important event in American football — for the first time ever. Among the big names, only Intel and Visa have prominent Olympics branding on their websites and social media accounts.French and German multinationals Atos and Allianz have at least some Instagram content, although nothing on Twitter, while Swiss watchmaker Omega links to a dedicated Olympics page on its social media accounts. Most sponsors have an Instagram story that the user has to click on to see Olympic content, although it is not part of the general feed.
Allianz told Al Jazeera in a statement that the company had made a long-term commitment to sponsor the Olympics “which goes far beyond the current Winter Games,” while Atos said in a statement that despite being an Olympic sponsor since 2001, it had not advertised at Asian games including PyeongChang 2018, Tokyo 2021, and now Beijing 2022.
Swiss watchmaker Omega, which describes itself as the official “timekeeper” of the Olympics instead of a sponsor, links to a dedicated page for the Games on its social media accounts.
At Beijing 2022, ‘woke capital’ in awkward spot on human rights
