The strategy, Carberry says, is working. Since 1986, when Visa first became a top-tier Olympic sponsor, "an interesting thing has happened," Carberry says. "In focus groups, people now talk about Visa in the same way they talk about the Olympics. They talk about things like leadership, competence and acceptability ... There's been what we call an 'equity transfer.' That, to us, is proof of return on investment.'"

But should it be? Visa's Olympic sponsorship has always made more sense than most, because of its association with a real benefit -- the fact that Visa is more widely accepted than American Express, even at something as big, global and omnipresent as the Olympics. But Visa isn't content to use its sponsorship of the Summer Games simply to convey a product benefit.

The real goal seems to be to align the Visa brand with an abstract set of Greco-Roman values -- leadership, fair play, goodwill among men. In this, it is not alone. Officials of the other major global sponsors also believe that, through an amorphous process of feelings-leak, the spirit of the Summer Games will seep into their own brand. "We have been very excited about our sponsorship," says Julie Davis, a spokeswoman for Bank of America. "We expect tangible, measurable improvements in attribute ratings as a result of our involvement ... Just as you see Olympians as leaders, excelling in their chosen field, consumers will come to see us as leaders, providing a range of innovative financial solutions."

"We know, based on the research we've done, that when you co-brand with the rings, there is a halo effect," says Steve Burgay, vice president of John Hancock Financial Services Inc. "When you join your logo with the rings, your logo is enhanced. We know that for a quantitative fact."

It's not clear how one quantifies an emotional response to a logo, but never mind. It was for this reason, Burgay says, that David D'Alessandro, president and CEO of John Hancock, took to the airwaves during last year's bribery scandal to urge International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch to clean house. "It had everything to do with protecting our business investment," Burgay explains. "Our logic was: If the IOC does nothing, eventually the taint will spread beyond the IOC, and leak into consumer perception of the rings themselves. If that were to happen, the value of our investment would be diminished significantly."

Hancock's apprehension about its investment is understandable. This year, the Games' 11 "global sponsors" paid upward of $55 million each for the right to display the Olympic rings alongside their own swirls, swooshes and orbital crescents -- a staggering sum that doesn't even include the media buy. Sponsors wishing to purchase airtime were asked to pony up $615,000 for a 30-second spot -- a 40 percent increase over what they were charged in Atlanta in 1996. From an advertising perspective, sponsors have been miffed to discover that they have paid more for less. "As a longtime advertiser, we're concerned," says Nike spokesman Scott Reames. "We invested a lot of money in NBC, based on ratings we expected them to deliver. So far, those ratings have not been delivered. They haven't reached anywhere near the numbers they promised ... So we're disappointed. And we're concerned."

Meanwhile, with the XXVII Olympiad poised to go down in history as the Olympics at which the most athletes tested positive for banned substances, the brand builders' goo-goo-eyed view of the Games as a festival of togetherness seems more naive than ever. Rather than associating the rings with corporately minted virtues such as "leadership," "excellence" and "quality," 21st century viewers seem far more likely to associate the Olympic brand with, say, "chemicals" -- hardly a fertile area for equity transfer, unless you are Monsanto. Hence the recent decision by IBM to end its 40-year history as a top Olympic sponsor. "The general cynicism the public has toward all institutions, they now have toward the Olympics," an IBM marketing official told me. "There's just a lot less trust ... The sunny thought that [by sponsoring the Olympics], you get into people's heads in this deep way ... just seems awfully naive."

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