London Olympics under fire for Dow Chemical ties

Just a few months ago, Dow Chemical was hailed by the organizers of the London Olympics for saving a visual centerpiece an artistic wrap around Olympic Stadium. Now, the Olympic sponsor is sparking the kind of controversy that no one wants.Dows link to the company accused in the 1984 Bhopal gas leak the worlds worst industrial disaster has brought a cascade of criticism down upon the organizing committee. Protesters in the central Indian city of Bhopal burned an effigyFriday of Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London organizing committee, and one Indian official has even uttered the word boycott.Emotions in India are still raw, for the Bhopal disaster killed 15,000 people and injured half a million, according to the government, and is being blamed for major local health problems 27 years later.Although Indian officials say the country has no intention of staying away from the games, pressure has been building for the Olympics to sever its ties with Dow or face the risk of constant protests marring the spectacle that Britain hoped would lift its flagging spirits and foundering economy.Dow is one of the elite club of sponsors that the International Olympic Committee places in its Top category, enjoying a special status in exchange for paying about $100 million every four years.Coe would have real trouble pulling out the rug from a sponsor with such status, particularly because the feel-good Olympic image is a main reason why Dow would sponsor the games in the first place. Companies pay big money to attach their brand to the warm and fuzzy glow of young, strong and photogenic athletes overcoming the odds to win on a world stage.Much of the controversy stems from Dows funding of the wrap, an innovative curtain designed to encircle the stadium.Olympic officials scrapped the plan last year because its cost 7 million pounds ($11.4 million) seemed out of step with austere times across Europe.Architects and artists decried the decision, suggesting the image of the games would suffer never mind that fans trying to find their seats in the steel-latticed stadium would need something to guide them through the identical girders.Then Dow swooped in to save the wrap and didnt even blink at Olympic guidelines that will bar it from etching its brand logo onto the curtains.Olympic organizers could face unpleasant consequences for being associated with a company linked to such an uncomfortable subject such as Bhopal.You run the risk of the association and sponsorship backfiring, to the extent that the Olympic Games might feel impacted by the relationship with Dow, said Scott Rosner, associate director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative.