By Joe McDonald
BEIJING (AP) --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.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More