Advertising, ad campaigns, ad agencies, and the people that make it happen

An article in today's AdAge covering the blurring of Olympic sponsorship lines reminds me of when I used to work on the Xerox account, I was always somewhat bemused that they would cough up millions of dollars to be the Official Sponsor of the Olympics in the "Small Copier" category, while some one else paid millions to be the "Big Copier" sponsor, or something equally bizarre. Apart from the fact that most of those millions are usually for the benefit of the companies management and major customers, who then get ringside seats to all the events, I think the multiplicity of categories just create confusion in consumers minds. I certainly don't think it's worth the huge sums of money being thrown about.

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That'll cost you a zillion Yen!