Hurdler Liu Xiang’s surprise departure from the Olympics was a blow to advertisers including Coca Cola and Nike that made the 25-year-old hurdler a star of campaigns aimed at Chinese consumers.
“His marketing value has been seriously diminished,” said Chris Renner, president for China of sports marketing agency Helios Partners.
Liu has become one of China’s most familiar faces, appearing in advertisements on TV, billboards and public buses for Coca Cola Co., Nike Inc., Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group and telephone company China Mobile Ltd.
Liu’s endorsements have made him one of China’s richest athletes, bringing in 163 million yuan ($23.8 million) last year, according to Forbes magazine. He ranked No. 2 on its list of China’s most powerful celebrities, behind basketball star Yao Ming.
Nike plans to continue showing television commercials in China featuring Liu, said a company spokesman, Derek Kent. Asked whether Liu’s advertising value had declined, Kent said, “He’s an icon here in China. He has a very bright future.”
On Monday, state TV broadcast a Nike commercial featuring Liu just hours after he pulled out of the first heat of the 110-meter hurdles due to leg pain. It showed Liu getting into starting blocks and the company slogan, “Just Do It.”
With Liu out, Nike’s advertising loses some of its punch, Renner said.
“If anybody takes a hit from it, it’s certainly Nike, simply because they’re all about performance, whereas the others are about brand image,” he said. “Nike’s all about, you don’t win silver, you lose gold. With that attitude, it’s much tougher for them, because he was certainly the cornerstone for their program.”
Advertisers that want to expand in China’s fast-growing consumer market have spent heavily to build high-profile campaigns around its Olympians. Others include Yao, who is playing for the Chinese basketball team, and divers Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia.
But Liu was seen as the most valuable. Softspoken and boyish, the 25-year-old was a national hero after winning the 110-meter hurdles at Athens in 2004. While even with Yao the Chinese basketball team was thought unlikely to take gold, Liu was expected to dominate the Beijing games by repeating his triumph.
Coach Sun Haiping, who broke down in tears at a news conference as he discussed Liu’s withdrawal, suggested the public exposure added to pressure on him.
“Whenever he goes out, he sees his own picture in the streets,” Sun said.
A Coca Cola spokeswoman, Christina Lau, said the company will continue to use Liu in marketing. But she declined to give details of advertising plans or say whether Liu’s role would change after his injury.
Liu was one of a “Chinese dream team” of Olympians who appeared on a special edition Coca Cola can issued in China last year.
“We will continue to count on Liu Xiang as an ambassador for our company and our brand because his achievements both on and off the field will continue to inspire fans and consumers throughout China,” Lau said.
Liu was the only Chinese competitor among 11 athletes sponsored by Lenovo in its “Olympic Champions” program. Lenovo spokesman Bob Page said Liu’s photo would appear on brochures and posters released through the autumn but he said he had no information on what would happen after that.
Nike has run full-page newspaper ads in China showing athletes who won gold medals this week, including the diver Wu.
On Tuesday, Nike published the same newspaper ad showing Liu — the first non-medalist of the series. The company said it would appear in at least seven newspapers in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, as well as on Web sites.
“It’s about picking yourself up when you’re down and coming back stronger,” Kent said.
“Beatles ’64” Documentary Captures Intimate Moments From Landmark U.S. Visit
Likely most people have seen iconic footage of the Beatles performing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." But how many have seen Paul McCartney during that same U.S. trip feeding seagulls off his hotel balcony?
That moment — as well as George Harrison and John Lennon goofing around by exchanging their jackets — are part of the Disney+ documentary "Beatles '64," an intimate look at the English band's first trip to America that uses rare and newly restored footage. It streams Friday.
"It's so fun to be the fly on the wall in those really intimate moments," says Margaret Bodde, who produced alongside Martin Scorsese. "It's just this incredible gift of time and technology to be able to see it now with the decades of time stripped away so that you really feel like you're there."
"Beatles '64" leans into footage of the 14-day trip filmed by documentarians Albert and David Maysles, who left behind 11 hours of the Fab Four goofing around in New York's Plaza hotel or traveling. It was restored by Park Road Post in New Zealand.
"It's beautiful, although it's black and white and it's not widescreen," says director David Tedeschi. "It's like it was shot yesterday and it captures the youth of the four Beatles and the fans."
The footage is augmented by interviews with the two surviving members of the band and people whose lives were impacted, including some of the women who as teens stood outside their hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of the Beatles.
"It was like a crazy love," fan Vickie Brenna-Costa recalls in the documentary. "I can't really understand it now. But then, it was natural."
The film shows the four heartthrobs flirting and dancing at the Peppermint Lounge disco, Harrison noodling with a Woody Guthrie riff on his guitar... Read More