Usain Bolt Warns Olympians To Protect Their Brands From ‘Bandwagonist’ Corporate Entities

Clockwork producer Usain Bolt has concerns about corporate entities exploiting the image rights of athletes who competed at the Olympic Games.  Bolt sparked a firestorm on Monday after posting on his social media pages that Jamaica’s Olympians should not allow their images and brands to be exploited by ‘bandwagonist’ corporate entities who did not assist their Tokyo Olympic quest.

“A lot Athletes sought support from corporate Jamaica in their preparation leading up and heading to Olympic Games and got NO HELP.   Athletes know your Worth/Power now that they all want to jump onto your Brand/Image for free. 🙏🏿,” Bolt said.

In August 2015 the JAAA had expressed similar, grave concerns, after several congratulatory advertisements bearing images of Jamaica’s athletes competing at the World Championships, were placed in both the electronic and print media by companies who had no contractual arrangements with the athletes, or their managers, to do so.

The JAAA had said in a release that it was concerned about the seeming attempt by certain corporate companies to exploit the athletes’ image and that the “continued practice to associate their products with the athletes and or Jamaican track and field”, is prohibited and as a consequence, the appropriate remedy will be pursued against those who are found to be in breach”.

The JAAA had appealed to the errant companies involved to respect the rights of the athletes, warning that failure to do so would lead to preventative action.

However, despite the JAAA’s warning, the trend has continued – though not as pervasive as in 2015 – with some large corporate companies, including bottled water companies and hotel chain proxies, among other things, posting series of images of the medaling athletes in the form of congratulatory messages on their social media pages.

Back in 2015, the JAAA had also said that it was appealing to the infringing companies to respect the athletes’ image rights by “appropriately engaging them in contract rather than seeking to exploit their images”.

On Monday, Usain Bolt’s statements were given overwhelming support by a slew of his Dancehall and sporting compatriots and his general fans, from Jamaica and across the world on Instagram.

Cham, Miss Kitty, Tami Chin, Ding Dong were among those who gave Bolt the thumbs-up for his comments, as did Vybz Kartel, Foota Hype and others.

“Real General talk @usainbolt,” Vybz Kartel noted, while his former Alliance stablemate Foota Hype wrote: “Same so bredda.”

Chuck Fenda added: “@usainbolt real talk #ETERNALFIRE🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥”

Dub poet Ras Takura was among those who joined the fray.

“Great great advice king..i see @adamstewart capitalizing i Wonder Wich Athletes they sponsor,” he wrote.

On Bolt’s Twitter page, the so-called “intellectual minority” came out in their numbers. Among them was Radio Listener who expressed full agreement.

“Truth must be spoken. Think a now Hansle Parchment a run. I don’t watch sport and I know his name long time. Most of these do not aid in your growth but when you reach the top everybody see you. Some a dem fi gweh!!!!,” he said.

Others said they particularly took exception to a particular hotel chain publicly offering vacations to the athletes.

“Sandals is feting every athlete . I’m wondering if they were there during their prep when they needed it most. They’re doing it when it benefits them and not the athlete,” Cudjoe said.

“Yeah I agree… lock een a 4 year sponsorship deal before taking any vacations,” Chrisdfoodie wrote, while starstatusp added: “This is what I’m saying about the free vacations at sandals! Take the free trip but they can’t use your image for free.”.

“This is what I said as soon as I seen these resorts offering stays. Fuck that. Got donate some houses, infrastructure, business grants. Do something substantial for those that ain’t on top,” whenlionsspeak added.

Others contended that many of Jamaica’s Olympians had struggled and said they were happy that the concerns were now being raised by the track legend, as his words carry more weight.

“Here it is…Asafa said it and people cuss him out clean clean. See here..Usain is saying it…👏👏👏,” suzettedennisaustin said.

“I listened Megan Tapper and her husband spoke about how many companies they wrote to and not one. They ended up selling pudding!!! Well look at her now!!!” rickie.toban added.

As the debate raged on Bolt’s Instagram page, there were a slew of commendations for the Trelawny native, as people declared that, like the track icon, they were fed up of those who come in at the back end after the athletes have achieved international glory.

Some track and field fans declared that instead of offering vacations to the athletes, hotel chains should either offer them sponsorship deals or sign them as brand ambassadors, as well as sign some of the lesser-known athletes providing monthly cheques to help in their development for next few years.

“This is where they need to be careful…and they athletes should not be forced to blog or post pictures….caz a dat dem want….they are deserving of the vacation but they should never feel obligated to promote the resort,” @starstatusp said.

“Say it loud @usainbolt Matter of fact, these athletes should (trough their lawyers) stop those congratulatory posts using their image). Let those companies pay them to use their image on social media or the print media,” kmarcandre said, echoing the JAAA sentiments.

“These local companies are too exploitive and unsupportive. The audacity of them as well to want to ONLY associate with the athletes who won medals. Where are the lawyers of these athletes? Who will volunteer to help them protect their image, rights and income?” he added.