Dr Dre does strike you as the enterprising type, what him being a doctor and all. But we’re pretty impressed with his tactics to get some (relatively) free advertising at the London Olympics.
Many of you will have heard stories of how sponsors are jealously guarding their investment but Dre has managed to circumvent the costly process of becoming an official sponsor by simply sending a bucketload of his Beats-brand headphones to UK athletes.
So far divers, tennis players, swimmers, footballers and other athletes have all been seen sporting the Union Jack-emblazoned headphones in a fine example of ambush marketing.
As the Guardian notes: “Tennis player Laura Robson tweeted about receiving her headphones, although the post now appears to have been removed from her Twitter account, as did football goalkeeper Jack Butland, who tweeted: ‘Love my GB Beats by Dre.’”
Olympic athletes had been told before the competition that they’re not to be seen promoting any brand and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) aren’t likely to take this lying down.
Maybe Dre should send them some IOC-branded Beats to calm them down?
