Fashion’s invasion of the Olympics

Just one more part of culture for brands to turn into adverts

Back in the old days, advertising used to be about billboards, TV ads and radio spots. You’d be waiting for the bus or watching Friends or listening to the news, there would be some adverts, and then you’d go back to the thing you were doing. It’s different now. Of course, there’s still millions of ads bombarding our eyeballs online, but we’re exposed to much more subtle forms of branding, through sponsored content, product placements and influencer deals that inject consumer messaging into parts of culture that aren’t so easily interrupted by ad breaks.

The red carpet looks, the celebrities getting papped while drinking smoothies, the outfits worn by musicians on stage — these are not adverts in the typical sense of the word, but they’re still opportunities for brands to remind us that we could be spending money. It’s much more subtle, sitting in the background of culture rather than interrupting the main event.

Almost every part of culture is an opportunity for branding now, and it sucks. We humans are supposed to be doing meaningful work and caring for each other and creating awesome things together. We are not supposed to be spending every waking moment of our precious lives thinking about energy drinks and moisturizer. The Olympics are just one more of our shared spaces for brands to conquer.

Sports has always been a valuable commercial space — just think of all those uniforms, advertising breaks and pitch-side ads — but the Olympics are different, because they’re about the host city as much as they are about the games themselves. And because they’re being held in Paris this year, brands have the opportunity to align themselves not just with the biggest event in the sporting calendar, but with one of the world’s most iconic cities as well.

Plus, the games are broad, so almost anyone can be at least slightly interested in what’s going on, and they’re politically agnostic. You can be the most Qanon-obsessed Trump voter and still enjoy the 100m sprints. Business of Fashion called the games “a potent marketing opportunity”, and that’s exactly how the CEOs, CMOs and CBOs are looking at it.