Winter Olympics sponsors caught between China, U.S.

With less than two weeks to go before the start of the Winter Games in Beijing, several Olympics sponsors are skipping what is usually an Olympics-themed advertising blitz.

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In 2018, Visa Inc. revved up its Olympic marketing campaign months before the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. It marked the 100-day countdown to the torch lighting on Twitter. It highlighted its Team Visa athletes, and it promoted wearable payment devices used at the event.

This time around, the credit-card giant and longtime Olympic sponsor hasn’t tweeted about its sponsorship of the event or issued any news releases. Visa didn’t return requests for comment…

Some of the same companies staying quiet now have spoken up on human-rights issues in other parts of the world. Coca-Cola, for instance, has raised human-rights concerns about Qatar ahead of another competition it sponsors, soccer’s World Cup, slated to be held in that country later this year. Human-rights organizations say Qatar has pressed migrant workers into inhumane and deadly conditions to construct World Cup stadiums. Qatar’s government denies those allegations and says it is committed to improving work conditions.

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