Major Advertiser Pulls Olympic-Themed Commercials From 2021 Tokyo Games

One major advertiser is pulling its Olympics-related TV commercials from rotation. Toyota Motor Corp. made the decision to pull the ads on Monday, and additionally, Toyota’s CEO Akio Toyoda and other top executives will skip the opening ceremony on Friday, according to Business Insider. Toyota’s chief communications officers Jim Nagata said to the Japanese outlet Yomiuri that Toyota will still provide more than 3,000 vehicles to the games.

As for why Toyota is pulling its Olympic-themed ads, Nagata didn’t reveal why the move was made but did say there are still “things that are not understood” about how the games will operate. It could have to do with Tokyo hosting the games despite COVID-19 issues in the country. Back in June, the news site Asahi Shimbun conducted a survey and revealed that nearly half of the people in Japan wanted the games to be called off.

“We cannot think it’s rational to host the Olympics in the city this summer,” the newspaper said in its editorial section in May. “Distrust and backlash against the reckless national government, Tokyo government and stakeholders in the Olympics are nothing but escalating. We demand Prime Minister Suga to calmly evaluate the circumstances and decide the cancellation of the summer event.”

The Tokyo Olympics were scheduled for last year but were pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And while things have gotten better compared to last year, the pandemic is still causing issues with the games. It was recently announced that spectators will be banned from attending the Olympics. This comes after the Japanese government declared a State of Emergency in Tokyo.

“However, in the event that a state of emergency or other priority measures aimed at preventing infection are implemented at any time after 12 July 2021,” the statement from the International Olympic Committee read, “restrictions on spectator numbers at the Games, including non-spectator competitions, will be based on the content of the state of emergency or other relevant measures in force at that time.” The IOC added, “The equivalent policies governing the Paralympic Games will be decided by 16 July 2021, a week before the opening of the Olympic Games.” The 2021 Tokyo Olympics will start on July 23 and run until August 8.