Brandjack News

By Quentin Langley

Nine hours ago (at the time of writing) Olympic Gold medallist, Anna Watkins, said on the BBC's Newsnight that some male medallists are receiving BMWs and the women are not. Hmm. "Some" is the weasel word here. Some sports are much higher profile than others. So who are these "some" and from whom are they getting the BMWs?

Are these cars donated by BMW directly to the athletes? In other words, is this a policy from BMW and, if so, is this worldwide or is this BMW UK making gifts to British athletes only?

If we concentrate on British athletes, it would be difficult to draw a line between high-profile and low-profile athletes that excluded women. Probably the most high profile British Olympic victory was that of Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon. It is difficult to conceive of a strategic PR response that would have selected athletes on any sporting or PR criteria that would have excluded Ennis, who is also highly photogenic. 

While it may be that BMW sees its core audience as being male, it would be absurd to suggest that men are interested in male athletes. 

As yet BMW doesn't seem to have commented on the story at all. Silence does not serve the company well.