Will the Flame Go Out for Olympic Sponsors?

To get a better view of the Olympic torch as it makes its way down streets in some of the world's signature cities, Lenovo is providing onlookers cardboard periscopes emblazoned with the company's logo and a photo of a ThinkPad portable compturer.

In Paris today, here's what you would have seen: an untold number of Parisian police officers, hundreds of gendarme cars and vans, buses carrying smiling and waving people all wearing official torch relay outfits, runners in blue and red outfits trotting alongside of the buses, a police bus speckled with red paint and carrying several protestors who banged on the bus's windows, a percussion band riding a Lenovo float, rhythmic gymnasts on a float for Samsung, and protest signs held aloft on the sidelines hammering China for its stance toward Tibet.

Here's what you probably wouldn't have seen: the Olympic torch.

French officials took the torch from the streets after protestors succeeded in putting out the flame three times after the relay began at the Eiffel Tower. The torch was placed inside a bus, which was greeted with a chorus of boos as it passed thousands of onlookers lined up on its path through downtown Paris. Several protestors were arrested along the way, some for laying in the street in an attempt to halt the relay.

The protestors weren't just voicing their displeasure to Olympic representatives. Some of the loudest boos were directed to the Lenovo and Samsung displays. The people on those floats kept forced smiles on their faces through it all.

After similar protests in London on Sunday, Samsung officials told reporters they were committed to remaining sponsors of the relay.

"We understand there are concerns among consumers, customers, and even internally within Samsung," said Louis Kim, a spokesman for Samsung in Seoul, according to Infoworld.com. "Just like the spectators, we are trying to embrace the Olympic Games."

In addition to Lenovo and Samsung, Coca-Cola is sponsoring the torch relay, though Coke didn't have a visible presence in Paris. According to the New York Times, analysts estimate that the companies paid as much as $15 million each to sponsor the relay. Lenovo launched an elaborate website to allow people to follow the torch's path, and the site includes news coverage of the protests.

From Paris, the torch relay heads to San Francisco on Wednesday, for its only stop in the United States.

by J. Jennings Moss

Photographs of protests in Paris by J. Jennings Moss/Portfolio.com