Why target corporation sponsors

Who are the Corporate Sponsors?

The Olympic sponsors include some of the best known brands in the world:

Adidas, Anheuser-Busch, Atos Origin, BHP Billiton, Coca-Cola, General Electric (parent of NBC), Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, Lenovo, Manulife, McDonald's, Microsoft, Panasonic, Samsung, Staples, Swatch, UPS, Visa and Volkswagen.

You can find a complete list of corporate sponsors on the website of the Beijing Organizing Committee. 

Why Target Olympic Sponsors? 

We are focusing on these companies because they are sponsoring the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and China has unrivaled influence with the government of Sudan. China has an opportunity to help bring security to civilians in Darfur. We are asking everyone associated with the Olympics to express their wish -- within the Olympic movement and to the Chinese host -- that Beijing help ensure there is security on the ground in Darfur before the Games begin.

We are not calling for a boycott. But we are urging the Olympic corporate sponsors to join us in pressuring the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and China to, in turn, press Sudan to ensure that there is immediate protection for civilians and humanitarian workers on the ground in Darfur well before the Games begin.

The Olympic corporate Partners, Sponsors, and Suppliers would prefer to say that this is not their problem. We believe that the more voices that are raised, the more hope there is for peace in Darfur. The Olympics belong to all of us, and in the face of genocide, anyone in a position of influence must try to act. 

The Switch Over to Darfur Campaign

Switch Over to Darfur is a corporate sponsor and consumer/grassroots activist campaign. Consumers are committing -- between now and August -- to turn off sponsors' commercials during the Games if sponsors take inadequate action on Darfur. Demonstrations on World Refugee Day

Darfur advocates are demonstrating at the headquarters and retail locations of Olympic Corporate Sponsors on June 20, 2008.

2008 Corporate Sponsor Report Card 

Why are the major corporations sponsoring the Olympics -- some of the most recognizable brands in the world -- refusing to speak out against the world's most wrenching humanitarian crisis?

In its second Olympic Corporate Sponsor Darfur Report Card, Dream for Darfur again failed or gave Ds to the majority – 15 of 19 – top Olympic sponsors, among them Visa, Coke and Swatch, for the companies' persistent refusal to take any meaningful step to help bring security to war-torn Darfur.

The 200-plus page report, The Big Chill: Too Scared to Speak, Olympic Sponsors Still Silent on Darfur, has triggered protests at the headquarters and retail locations of low-scoring sponsors.
2007 Corporate Sponsor Report Card Executive Summary (.pdf)

In a report card released November 26, 2007, Dream for Darfur failed or gave Ds to 16 out of 19 top 2008 Olympic sponsors -- among them Visa, Coke and others known worldwide for their consumer brands -- on their corporate social responsibility responses to China's support of the genocide in Darfur. The report accompanying the grades is called: "And Now … Not a Word from Our Sponsors."