Retraction of Olympic emblems leaves sponsors scrambling to revise ads

The withdrawal of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic logos has sent shockwaves throughout the domestic business community, with a host of companies scrambling to pull down advertisements using the controversial emblems.

Corporate sponsors of the quadrennial event have used the logos designed by art director Kenjiro Sano on their websites and advertisements, but are now busy replacing them not knowing who will cover the financial damage caused by the mess-up. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government also forked out taxpayers' money in public relations activities using the emblems, and the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee will likely be hit by compensation claims from affected entities.

Among the 13 top corporate sponsors -- known as "Gold Partners" for their generous funding of around 15 billion yen each -- NEC Corp. was forced to remove the Olympic logos from its website on Sept. 1 following the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee's retraction announcement earlier the same day. The electronics giant had just launched Olympic-related pages on its website a day earlier. Although financial damage is limited, the company is apparently perplexed by the unexpected development, with one official saying, "We had just launched the (related) website."

Asics Corp. and Mitsui Fudosan Co. also pulled down the emblems from their respective websites.

Tokyo Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. had displayed the Olympic emblems at the end of its TV commercial, but is poised to replace them with a Japanese Olympic Committee logo from Sept. 3. Nippon Life Insurance Co., which also used the scandal-hit logos in its TV ad, says it will move to revise the ad swiftly.

Asahi Breweries Ltd., meanwhile, went on to use the retracted emblems on Sept. 2 in its subway banner ads for a Sept. 3-5 beer event. "Because the ads had already been printed out, we couldn't physically make it in time," said a company representative.

Despite the confusion, one corporate sponsor said, "The change of the emblems at this point would cause a limited impact. It was lucky it wasn't worse."

Since the emblems were unveiled on July 24, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government had placed orders for goods with the logos printed on them, with the contract money totaling some 46.52 million yen as of Sept. 1. Among those contracts, the metropolitan government has already paid out 42,012 yen for back panels used at Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe's press conferences and 297,000 yen for 100 posters.

Apart from these, the metropolitan government will likely have to pay a total of around 2.77 million yen for related items already delivered -- 20,000 posters, 540 banner flags, 4,000 paper bags and 16 notices at airports. "We haven't discussed the matter from a legal perspective. We will look into whether we can file a damages claim with the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee," said a metropolitan official on Sept. 2.

Gov. Masuzoe criticized the mess on his Twitter account in the predawn hours of Sept. 2, saying, "It leaves a sour aftertaste. Just like the problem surrounding the new national stadium, unclear responsibility and insufficient information disclosure are behind this latest problem."