via Reuters
2022 Beijing Olympics – Snowboard – Women’s SBD SS Final Run 1 – Genting Snow Park, Zhangjiakou, China – February 6, 2022. Julia Marino of the United States in action. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
via Reuters
2022 Beijing Olympics – Snowboard – Women’s SBD SS Final Run 1 – Genting Snow Park, Zhangjiakou, China – February 6, 2022. Julia Marino of the United States in action. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
After winning an Olympic silver medal in the slopestyle competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022, snowboarder Julia Marino canceled her appearance for the big air event. She did not compete because IOC wanted to remove a logo from her snowboard. Significantly, the famous fashion company Prada sponsors the athlete. With a big logo of their company name on the snowboard, the IOC spoke about a violation of rules.
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Even though Marino used the same snowboard during her Olympic silver medal run, she had to remove it or get disqualified. Hence, things became messy. In the meantime, Prada received a boost in its marketing department, from this incident. An incredible boost indeed.
Prada receives marketing boost at the Beijing Winter Olympics
With the media exposure around the athlete’s use of their famous logo, Prada received $7.5 million worth of media exposure. Hence, it looks good for the marketing department of the company. The famous company logo drew attention to the athlete. Hence, she blamed the IOC for making her cover the snowboard, thus, opting out of the big air competition. In an interesting turn of events, Marino spoke about the matter on an Instagram story, earlier.
“For everyone asking, the night before the big air (competition), the IOC told me they no longer approved my board even (though) they approved it for slope. They told me I would be disqualified if I didn?t cover the logo and obligated me to literally draw on the base of my board with a sharpie,” said Marino.
.@Prada has received more than $7.6M worth of media exposure during the #Olympics for its presence on Julia Marino's outfit, per @ApexMarketing
The $3,600 board, which sold out, drew added attention after Marino said the IOC made her cover logo, leading her to crash out of Games pic.twitter.com/OWumi799A9
— Eben Novy-Williams (@novy_williams) February 16, 2022
The IOC later informed her she violated “Rule no 40” related to the sponsorship deals. Even her logo on the helmet had to be covered according to IOC as they put their foot down on the matter.
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Doesn’t appear at the big-air event
With all the problems arising from the issue, she did not appear for the qualification of the big-air. Moreover, she talked about the repercussions on her snowboard and talked about how it “felt unstable and unsteady.” It became a disappointing ending for the athlete who was having a successful Olympic Games.
via Reuters
2022 Beijing Olympics – Snowboard – Women’s SBD SS Final Run 3 – Genting Snow Park, Zhangjiakou, China – February 6, 2022. Julia Marino of the United States in action. REUTERS/Mike Blake
She picked up her first Olympic silver medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 and looked happy. As for Prada, they just got lucky to get the media exposure they received. To sum up, profits may be incoming for the fashion company.
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