Putin’s jacket displays the Yota logo
There was controversy back in 2012 about the official sponsors of the Olympic games forcing athletes to not display logos of their sponsor brands. The Sochi Olympic games came with their own controversies, but the branding rules stand. For the athletes anyway, as the Russian President wore a fleece with several brands displayed, including Russian mobile network provider Yota.
Yota is the maker of the intriguing dual-screen phone with a standard Android phone on one side and an E-Ink display on the back. Reviews have been ‘mixed’ (mixed between mediocre and bad). Here is a picture:
Yota has been intertwined with Putin for a while, being largely responsible for pushing through a large mobile deal in 2012. Having the logo so prominently displayed on his jacket is a clear indication of continued support.
What do you think? Should the President of a country be displaying a select number of brands from his country?
Boy, I just don’t think it matters. Then again, I think the Olympic branding rules are brain dead anyway. I guess it goes back to when the us basketball team with contracts with competing apparel makers covered up the official logos on the medal stand. I simply don’t care about advertising and logos, so it just doesn’t matter to me.
If President Obama wants to wear a fleece jacket with a Nike logo, or New Balance athletic shoes – it’s fine with me.
I agree with you, Doug. If companies are willing to spend their money to sponsor a team, it makes sense that they get some kind of recognition. As long as it isn’t grossly distracting, I don’t see a problem with logos on clothing.
Sure, it is fine if he wears an off the rack item with a logo … but this is a very specific sponsorship – of a specific product, by someone who has railroaded corporate deals through even shareholders weren’t sure were good ideas.
And are we saying that the official sponsorship of the leader of the US is for sale? What if Sony is the high bidder, or Samsung? Where does the money go? And what if the jacket has AT&T rather than Verizon and the following year AT&T sales go up 20% … has the government colluded to raise profits in a non-competitive way?
I look at it like this: If a world leader is wearing a jacket with current sponsor logos for and at an Olympic event in his country, he’s not doing anything wrong; he is supporting the sponsors of the event. If he wears the jacket the day after the Olympics, then that might be a different thing.
With that said, I have no idea if Yota is an Olympic sponsor or not; if not, I’d say it was inappropriate.
It’s just not that important to me. As long as I have been alive, every President has basically had about even popularity ratings, so for every person who would buy what the president wears there would another who would switch away to a competitor. Sony and Samsung don’t count in your example – you talked about the President wearing logos for companies in their countries.
I don’t care about it, but, of course, enough do that it just never happens much here. Russia is not here, though. It’s a completely different culture and the President rules.
Considering they estimate 2/3 of the money ‘spent’ is unaccounted for (i,e corruption) I would say a logo is the LEAST of their ‘inappropriate’ issues 🙂
Too true! 😉