Beijing Olympics Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Beijing Olympics - Case Study Example Interesting fact is that Chinese government hired a Western public relations firm to work on the 2008 Beijing Olympics instead of local firms in order showcase the brilliance of Chinese culture, technological superiority and infrastructure to rest of the world (Foss and Walkosz, 2008 & Fram, 2008). During the Olympic, Olympic organizing committee took help of public relations firm Hill & Knowlton (WPP Group) to handle its public relationship activities (Clifford, 2008). For last many decades, Chinese government is facing problem from Tibet support groups who are protesting against the encroachment of China in their country. China had experienced bad publicity stint due to widespread publicity of the protest of Tibet support groups before the inauguration of Olympic. Pro-Tibet supporters showed their protest in various cities of western world such as Paris, London, and San Francisco and also interrupted in activities like Olympic torch relay before the Olympic. In some cases, Chinese embassies were attacked by Tibet support groups. Sensitivity of the issue forced Chinese government to think about hiring an international public-relation (PR) who can handle the situation professionally (Ballas & Kanoff, 2008). Preuss (2008) has highlighted the fact that, although China had plenty of domestic PR organizations but Chinese government was not confident enough to take help of these mediocre PR companies to represent the country in the world stage. Chinese government took Olympic game as the stage to showcase their efficiency in terms of infrastructure, technology, marketing etc to western worlds hence in such context, taking help of domestic firms might malign their reputation (Preuss, 2008). Assess the reasons why protesters and activists target events such as the Olympics Olympic is an international event where more than 100 countries participate and China was first time hosting Olympic during 2008. Hence it was the perfect timing for protester to show their protest and bring their agenda for free Tibet in front of representative of international countries. Research scholars such as Fram (2008) and Ballas & Kanoff (2008) have pointed out that Tibet support groups have strategically planned the protest program in order highlight their agenda in front of international countries and gain their support on the agenda. The leaders of protesting groups had created a communication plan and training program for fellow protesters for teaching them how to give interview or even rappel (Clifford, 2008). During the course of Olympic, protesters have changed their agenda from protesting the right of Beijing to organize Olympic to human right violation of Chinese government in different parts of China and China’s investments in Sudan (Clifford, 2008). Kalaya’