Toyota cancels all TV ads for the Tokyo Olympics – The Hollywood Reporter

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Toyota Motor Corp. decided. , the main sponsor of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, has withdrawn all of its television advertising related to the Olympic Games in Japan.

Japanese media speculated on Monday that the decision was made because the car manufacturer fears its association with the turbulent Summer Games, which are not very popular in Japan, will tarnish its brand rather than polish it.

“The Olympics have become an event that has not gained public understanding,” a Toyota PR executive surnamed Nagata told Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper on Monday. The executive added that Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda and other top executives will not attend the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Summer Olympics on July 23.

Toyota was planning to run a series of television advertisements in Japan showing Olympic athletes sponsored by the company.

Now, media analysts will be watching to see if the decision by Toyota, the Japanese business giant, will drive other local sponsors and advertisers away from the games. Collectively, about fifteen Japanese companies have spent more than $3 billion to sponsor the Tokyo Olympics, the largest ever contribution from an Olympic host country company.

The possibility of Japanese brands exiting the games has been the subject of speculation for weeks thanks to the sour feelings many Japanese residents have towards the event.

With Tokyo placing a fourth state of emergency amid a spike in Delta-type COVID-19 cases, public concern remains high that hosting an event involving tens of thousands of athletes, officials and journalists entering the country from around the world will put the lives of local residents at risk. population.

Olympics organizers reported more than 25 positive coronavirus tests over the weekend among people who had traveled to Japan for the games — including two athletes and one organizer staying inside the Olympic Village, where thousands of participants will soon gather. Meanwhile, a Ugandan weight lifter was reported to have gone missing from his hotel and was believed to be on the loose somewhere in Osaka Prefecture, despite promises by organizers to keep athletes and guests within an Olympic “bubble” throughout the Games.

In an opinion poll published by the Asahi newspaper on Monday, 68 percent of respondents said they doubt the Olympic organizers’ ability to control the coronavirus infection, while 55 percent said they were against holding the Games as planned.

With the games starting in four days, just over 20 percent of the Japanese public is fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

In addition to television advertisements, several major Olympic sponsors in Japan were planning to organize large-scale marketing activities on the ground to generate enthusiasm for their brands amid the excitement of the event. Those plans were scuttled two weeks ago, though, when Olympic organizers announced that spectators would be banned from nearly all Olympic venues.

15 Japanese companies, including Asahi Breweries – the official beer of the Tokyo Olympics – each paid about $135 million to become Tokyo 2020 Gold Partners, the most expensive category of sponsorship offered to local businesses for single games.

Meanwhile, Japan and its taxpayers are estimated to have spent more than $26 billion on hosting the Games, including additional cost overruns due to the one-year delay.

When Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2013, organizers expected spectators, mostly foreign tourists, to spend about $2 billion on tickets, hotels, meals, and merchandise; And that the oral impact of the influx of foreigners and interest, what economists have called “archaeology,” would generate an additional $10 billion in inbound tourism spending over the next decade. However, under the current restrictions, almost all of the expected economic benefits for Japan are long gone.

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