Using our keen understanding of Olympics sponsorship, it costs a single company about, oh, $33 trillion dollars to attach themselves to the big gaming hullaballo. (Okay, on average it's about $72 million per company, with 63 companies signing on.) This is a lot of money, especially when big chip firms like Cadillac can't even afford to sponsor the Emmys anymore. In return for blowing a wad, official sponsors like Adidas, Coca-Cola, and Samsung get to revel in the good vibes of the Olympics, which they hope consumers will see rubbing off on their logos and encourage them to buy more crap. Except official Olympic sponsors have hit two major hurdles:

1) Unofficial sponsors (like Nike, or Pepsi) can still buy airtime during the games, and use 30-second spots that mimic the Olympic feel without explicitly saying anything about Beijing, the games, or the fact that they didn't pony up tons of cash to write "official Olympic sponsor" next to their logo. The allergy drug Claritin, for instance, signed gymnastics' most-decorated athlete Shannon Miller to shill its pills to NBC viewers, even though it's not an official Olympic sponsor.

2) The Chinese.

Even after writing huge cheques to the IOC, official Olympic sponsors like Lenovo, Samsung, Adidas, and Coca-Cola are having their investments torn apart by Chinese restrictions.

Having dumped some $150 million into the Olympic Green — "a massive space that is surrounded by Olympic venues including the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, and is the site of swimming, gymnastics, archery and many other sports" where brands have set up pavilions to push their wares — sponsors like McDonald's, who were expecting some 200,000 visitors a day to pass by, are instead seeing audiences just one-fifth that size. That's thanks to Beijing Olympics officials "citing security concerns … have turned away droves of spectators who are curious to see the Green with day passes. For the most part, the only people who have been allowed inside are those with hard-to-get tickets to the venues along the Green."

Most interesting, though, is that sponsors are saying publicly that they're pleased with the situation. Or at least staying silent.

McDonald's (Carl Lewis, nine-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist, is picutred visiting the one at the Green):

At 32,528 square feet and 1,015 seats, the temporary McDonald's at the north end of the Olympic Green is the largest free-standing McDonald's in the world as measured by size and seating capacity. Last week, the company said it was expecting huge traffic because it is the only restaurant on the Olympic Green.

Johan Jervoe, McDonald's corporate vice president of global marketing, said Tuesday that "We are pleased with our restaurants here and our brand's positioning amidst the wide expanse of the Games and its spectators."

McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa Howard said the company hasn't asked Olympic officials to get more spectators to the Olympic Green. She declined to answer specific questions about the lack of spectators in that area.

Samsung:

Some sponsors like Samsung, which have outdoor events at night, say they have been satisfied with the crowds. And most expect that the crowds will pick up when track and field events begin Friday at the nearby National Stadium.

Adidas:

"Obviously, it would have been nice to see more numbers earlier," said Katja Schreiber, a spokeswoman for Adidas, a major Olympic sponsor with a pavilion on the Green. "But we are seeing a growing trend, which will continue once the track and field competition [begins] in the 91,000-seat Bird's Nest later this week."

[WSJ]