Global Corporations Are Cheering for China

And speaking of The New York Times, its Beijing Olympics Blog published a complete collection of advertisements whose common theme is to cheer for China in this Olympic year.

McDonald's, Nike, Pepsi (including a red can for the "Red Team") and many others have joined the chorus of rah-rahs for the home team hoping to capture China's burgeoning domestic market.

"The campaigns for Western companies are part of an advertising blitz the likes of which this ostensibly communist nation has never seen," the article says. "Ads are papered over bus shelters, projected on giant outdoor television screens and plastered on billboards. Commercials even flicker at commuters as they zoom through subway tunnels.

"China, already the world’s second-largest advertising market, after the United States, is a dream for consumer product companies. 'For most international brands here, China is the growth market for the next 10 years,' said Jonathan Chajet, strategic director at Interbrand, which consults on brands.

"A record 63 companies have become sponsors or partners of the Beijing Olympics. Olympic-related advertising in China could reach $4 billion to $6 billion this year, according to CSM, a Beijing marketing research firm."

The Games were never intended to be the perfect occasion for the regime to improve its dismal human rights record, which they promised they would to the IOC. The Games' fundamental purpose was to prop up the People's Republic of Capitalism.

Mission accomplished.