Red Bull, Verizon Tweets Run Afoul of Olympics Rules
Neither Red Bull nor Verizon Communications (VZ) are Olympic sponsors, but both have posted items about the Vancouver Games on Twitter and Facebook.
That is a violation of Olympics rules, which say advertisers that don’t pay the tens of millions of dollars an official sponsorship costs may not associate themselves with the Games or the athletes during the events or the weeks surrounding them.
“RT @henryyamamoto: Here’s an idea for next Winter Olympics: Get @RedBull to produce it instead of some ‘committee’ or NBC Sports #olympics,” Red Bull posted to Twitter last Wednesday, retweeting the post of another Twitterer.
“We’re rooting for you @LindseyVonn @Shaun_White @GregBretzz and @Drahlves in the 2010 Winter #Olympics!” Red Bull posted the previous week, cheering on the U.S. ski and snowboard athletes it endorses.