Rumor About Olympic Advertising Program Stopping

There is a rumor that the advertising for all our Olympic athletes – Team Nutrilite – is stopping because the athletes don't want to be associated with the name Amway. Not true. Actually, because of Olympic guidelines, there will be a temporary “blackout” of advertising and marketing materials for all athletes competing in the Olympic Games who represent companies or products not officially sponsoring the Olympics. It isn’t just Team Nutrilite and it has nothing to do with the Amway name. The Team Nutrilite advertising and promotion program will resume as soon as the 2008 Olympic Games finish.

Quixtar/ Amway Global provides this explanation:

Advertising Blackout for Olympic Athlete Endorsers
In support of our global Nutrilite business, endorsement agreements have been arranged with several athletes who will be participating in the Olympic Games in Beijing. Due to guidelines established by the governing body of the Olympic Games, advertising and marketing materials featuring these athletes cannot be distributed or broadcast while the games are in progress August 8-24. Doing so could potentially result in the disqualification of these Team Nutrilite athletes from competition.

We do not wish to hinder the success of Team Nutrilite, so we will honor this Olympic blackout period and seek the cooperation of our Independent Business Owners to do the same. In fact, to ensure we are honoring this requirement, our blackout period will begin July 28 and continue through the end of the Olympic Games.  This requirement is the only reason for the short-term discontinuation of any programs featuring these athletes.

Also see our article on the IBOAI website, "Team Nutrilite Advertising and Marketing Materials to Temporarily Undergo Olympic Blackout."

Comments

[Bridgett]

"and seek the cooperation of our Independent Business Owners to do the same."

So what does this mean? What are we not allowed to do from July 28th to August 24th? Distribute anything (paper or emails) with the Team Nutrilite athletes on it?

Like the Health & Beauty Catalogs and the TEAM Nutrilite blog? Is that right?

That's kind of a bummer for those who have their National Spotlight Tour events during that time--San Francisco and Omaha.

Maybe the Corp. can keep the cut outs of the athletes, and put little masks on their faces.

Have a little fun with it and still convey that we have Olympic athletes endorsing our products.

It could be the "Masked Olympic Athlete" campaign for the month.

Am I the only one who cracks myself up with my fabulous ideas? ;)

[Bridgett: Funny response, good questions! I’m asking for clarifications, but in the meantime I would presume the most conservative approach. As much of a bummer as it is for us not to be able to promote our businesses with Team Nutrilite during that short stretch of time, it would be a bigger bummer to not be able to tout their superior performance during the Games because they were suspended due to our not observing the official guidelines. Olympics advertising is serious business and every four years it can have a bigger than normal impact on us. Moderator 2.]

[j4.1776]

Thanks fore being ahead of the curve. I'll be sure to forward this article along to any questioners.

[fcboldt]

I watched the Adidas event on TV yesterday, and I noticed that Jill only had Adidas on her uniform. After reading this article I now understand why. On the extremely positive side, Nutrilite was still very prominent during the telecast. I did see a very cool Nutrilite commercial during the event, and plenty of Nutrilite banners on the field. Additionally, the men's 1500 meter race was called the "Nutrilite Men's 1500" and ESPN had that title showing during the whole race. Thanks Nutrilite for putting your name out there.

[j4.1776]

Hopefully they will only limit it to the point of advertising where the olympics are (china) and since the tour will not be publicized on tv and such, maybe they will still have the "cardboard cut-outs with heads in tact" and videos of thier accomplishments.

They were great at the achievers in florida. Would be even better if the rest of the local organization could get a look at things.

Obviously they will not be there signing things!

And,

...if they need to just replace the heads of cardboard, ill stand in for the pix! ;P lol

[quixtarisacult]

Now that the Olympics are over, there isn't too much Team Nutrilite has to crow about. A couple gold medals in Team events. Bolt knocks Powell out, who finishes 5th. Richards takes a back seat to two other athletes winning bronze. Xiang, a waste of Amway endorsement money having limped out of the stadium. Highest individual medal by a Team Nutrilte competitor? A Silver. I'll bet there are some glum faces up there in Ada!

[Nothing to crow about? They qualified for spots on their Olympic teams. All but Xiang qualified for their Olympic events, taking first place in their heats. Even if they didn’t win gold for individual events they were competitive – Powell crossed the finish line in the 100m with a string of sprinters each only 2-hundredths of a second away from each other, all blown away by Bolt who was a quarter second ahead of the silver medalist. So even fifth place was competitive. Ask swimmer Michael Phelps how much a hundredth of a second counts. And while you’re at it, ask him if team gold matters. Richards and Powell each got one. Soccer great Ronaldinho won a team bronze. And then there’s Liu Xiang. Wasted money? The athlete a billion people in China most wanted to watch compete was Liu Xiang, and although they didn’t get to see him medal they did get to see him try 110m hurdles for them despite a hamstring injury. Fortunately, there was a false start and he found out the injury was too serious for competing. Official results list him as DNF – Did Not Finish (not Limped Away). Pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski won silver, hardly a drumming.

Nothing on Nutrilite packaging or literature says its products will make you win gold medals. What it does say is that it can help optimize your health. Team Nutrilite athletes chose to supplement with Nutrilite because of THAT, and that’s plenty to crow about. And one final thing to ponder, we don’t have any indication how they would have performed if they HAD NOT taken Nutrilite. We have only seen them be strong and competitive using it.

To see how "glum" they are in Ada, see the Team Nutrilite page on Opportunity Zone today (9.02.08) and the full-page ad in today's USA Today. Moderator2]
http://teamnutrilite.opportunityzone.com/default.aspx

[j4.1776]

qcult,

hmm, i dont remember seeing any "athlete" named "quixtarisacult" on that ad

http://teamnutrilite.opportunityzone.com/default.aspx

hmm, dont even remember seeing "quixtarisacult" on any of the rosters at the olympics...man, not even an honorable mention...could you even afford to go if you wanted? maybe you should try to sell some?

even the coach of Jenn Stuczynski was wearing a nutrilite shirt, and he didnt have to. surely he had some "other" attire to choose from to wear that day. oh, but he was in the stands! right?!?

oh, wait...were you even in the stands?

go back to your xbox and do something more worth-while of your comments. maybe even brush your teeth...i dont know, but fix that stench, ... please.

maybe if you took nutrilite, you would have been closer to being sponsored...or were you ever that good at anything other then running your fingers accross a keyboard with your oppinion? dont think there was an honorable mention for that either though. :/ hm, maybe next time eh?!

[pvbvguy]

Qcult,

It isn't a surprise that with a name like that you're not too fired up about what this company does.

I think just making the Olympics is a tremendous accomplishment and 4 out our athletes medaled! WOW that is great and the 5th who didn't is a national hero in China who was obviously injured.

If that is not good enough for you that is O.K., but it is good enough for me and I was excited and proud of the way they performed.