It’s no surprise that Michael Phelps, star swimmer and most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, has plenty of endorsements. Not all of those companies are official sponsors of the Summer Olympics, though. Because of this, officials made Phelps cover the logos on his Beats by Dre headphones. However, Phelps didn’t do the best job.
Business Insider posted a few photos of Phelps’ lackluster attempt to cover the logos, which entailed using a handful of U.S. flag stickers to cover up the logos on each side, but missing the logo on the top of the item.
It makes sense for the Olympics to ban the logos of non-sponsoring companies. Why would the Olympics allow those companies to advertise their brands when other companies have paid good money to showcase their logos as official sponsors? It’s similar to the story we posted about how Nike covered rival companies’ logos on an ad with the U.S. men’s basketball team.
This isn’t even the first time that athletes had to avoid showing off the Beats logo, either. Business Insider reported that during the 2012 games in London, Beats gave multiple athletes some free headphones. But the International Olympic Committee did its best to keep athletes from wearing them around.
