Advertising and Public Relations

Analyze the reasons why the Chinese government hired a Western public relations firm to work on the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The Chinese government hired a Western public relations firm to work on the 2008 Beijing Olympics in order to improve their image not only the athletes representing that side of the globe, but to the sponsors and viewers as well. The government knew that hosting the Olympics would provide a window through which the rest of the world could see China up close (Keegan & Green, 2011). Beijing wanted to take the opportunity to showcase the progress they have made as country but needed a liaison between government agencies and corporate sponsors to communicate those changes visually and verbally (Keegan & Green, 2011).

While Beijing has made many advances socially and economically since their first bid for the Olympics in 1993, social groups such as Students for a Free Tibet and Dreams for Darfur were still in full force as protestors wanted their voices and message heard. Beijing hired U.S. and British firms and consultants such as Weber Shandwick and Bell Pottinger, as well as Hill & Knowlton, in order to ease tensions between the social groups and sponsors for the 2008 Olympics (Keegan & Green, 2011).

The Chinese government knew that their image had to be protected in order to keep the positive spirit of the Olympics, and with the vast communication efforts of protesters through blogs, websites, and other Internet based communication tools, this would prove to be a difficult task (Clifford, 2008).

Determine the reasons why protesters and activists target events such as the Olympics.

Protesters and activist target events such as the Olympics because there is a large spectating audience across the world. These groups are able to use the popularity of the event in order to make people aware of whatever their cause is. Its easy and often free publicity, especially through Internet based avenues...