the olympic games work hard to disguise their vast corporate ties heres how creditjames hill for the new york timesfeb 18 2014krasnaya polyana russia the olympic games work extremely hard to disguise their vast corporate ties fans at the venues and viewers at home will not see any business logos in the background except the ubiquitous olympic rings and sochi 2014 emblem compared with nascar cars international soccer uniforms or outfield fences the illusion of the olympics is one of noncommercial purity the only interruptions come from the athletes their clothes and their equipment the international olympic committee leery of spoiling the canvas has a 33page book filled with detailed restrictions on logos it dictates the size and placement of them on everything from team uniforms at the opening ceremony to the emblems on a skiers gloves and the stickers on a bobsledders helmet observers might go the entire olympics and not notice themat least until the snowboarders and skiers go airborne the bottom of them may be the most prominent billboards at the winter games a bit of a twist of guerrilla marketing when someone such as the snowboarder shaun white flies through the air cameras often catch the underside of his board on which burton the name of its manufacturer is spread in large bold letters those images flash across television screens and are published around the world eight of the 12 finalists in the mens halfpipe competition rode burton boards all of them went upside downits great for awareness said jake burton the founder of the companythe same can be said for companies supplying skiers though the advertising space is slimmer two days later at the mens slopestyle competition in freestyle skiing athletes performed a series of highflying corkscrewing tricks when the event ended three americans had earned medals each of them holding their skis close for everyone to see and photograph glad to accept the free advertising were fischer gold medalist joss christensen atomic gus kenworthy silver and volkl nick goepper bronze of course there have been snowboarders and skiers especially showing the world the undercarriages of their equipment for years ski jumpers for one have been an olympics fixture since 1924 imagecreditjosh hanerthe new york timesbut since 1992 the winter olympics have grown steadily skyward adding freestyle skiing and snowboarding events most feature airborne rotating athletes and what makes their equipment different from that of say ski jumpers who have specialized skis designed specifically for use on ski jumps is that it is marketed heavily to the masses whites burton board is not unlike the ones that countless snowboarders buy and ride the aerial bombardment of brands seems to fly in the face of the international olympic committee which goes to great lengths to squelch promotional interference from companies without sponsorship ties to the games the iocs rule 40 even restricts athletes from publicly mentioning their sponsors by name even on social media during the olympics that led to a protest from athletes at the