The Brand

It seems unimaginable today but no one wanted the 1984 Summer Olympics. At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. had boycotted the 1980 Olympics, and the 1972 games were marred by the hostage situation which left 11 Israeli athletes dead. Sandwiched in-between were the 1976 Montreal Games which overran its budget by $1.5 billion dollars. When it came time in 1978 to find a host for the 1984 Games, the only city to make a formal bid was Los Angeles. But the city’s mayor at the time, Tom Bradley, agreed to host the game on one condition: to offset the costs to taxpayers, the entire event, he insisted, was to be financed by commercial sponsors. Thus was [...]

As the boxer aged, the irascible sports journalist Howard Cossell would chide Muhammad Ali about his diminishing boxing skills, and ask how he could possibly continue to stave off younger contenders. Finally, Ali retorted at a pre-fight press conference: “And you're always talking about, 'Muhammad, you're not the same man you were 10 years ago.' Well, I asked your wife, and she told me you're not the same man you (were) two years ago.’“ The exchange helps explain why Ali is indeed the GOAT, or Greatest of All Time, both in the ring and as an iconic brand whose imprimatur raised the profile, and burnished the reputation, of any product he endorsed. In his heyday in the 1970s neither [...]