Q & A

Q1. Is there not other athletes who wore accessories like Yu-na?
　A1. There’s no problem if you don’t use the phrase like “She wears it in Olympic”,
　or if your product’s size is what Olympic Charter accepts,
　or if you are the official sponsor of IOC,
　or if you don’t use the word “Olympic” or the picture of the athletes.

Q2. The Earring, which Yu-na wore, seems smaller than 6？,like Charter Cap. 51 says. So, what’s wrong with that?
　A2. The Cap. 51 actually does not prescribe the size what you are wearing,
　but it bans any kind of advertisement in Olympic game.
　The problem of this case is that an athlete was shown in the public
　like on skate link or at the interviews during the Olympic game,
　wearing some brand new products of a company,
　for which she’s been advertising for several years.

Q3. What about other companies? They also advertise themselves using some athletes!
　A3. There’s no problem if you are an IOC official sponsor.
　For example some Japanese companies, for whom some athletes advertise,
　did not use any name or picture of them during the Olympic game,
　just because they were not the IOC official sponsors.

Q4. How about Nepia and Mao Asada?
She definitely advertise the company and plays a roll on a TV commercial!　　
　A4. Player's sponsor should refrain from the advertisement
　using the player for the Olympics period.
　Asada's sponsor, the company of the tissue, followed the rule,
　and Kim's sponsor, the company of jewel, did not.

　Nepia, for which company Asada advertises,
　didn't advertise any of their products using her name or picture
　during the game until the 3. March, the day IOC lift the official ban
　on commercials using players names.
　If you read the comment of the Nepia's website,
　it says "welcome back, (mao)!",
　during the Olympic game, the same website said
　"our CEO(mao) is away on business".

　On the other hand, J.estina, for which company Kim advertises,
　DID advertise their products, which Kim wore on her SP and LP,
　Jestina’s spokesperson showed 2 different types of earrings on TV show
　and explained which she was going to wear on which performance.
　(so, even if Kim said she had no idea of advertising her sponsor,
　there might be slightest chance that she wasn't aware of it.)

Q5 I don’t care if I am an official or unofficial sponsor, what’s wrong with that?
　A5. Well, think about the companies who pays billions of dollars to be the official sponsors!

Q6. The earring sucks! How far could such a tiny thing effect on the purchase?
　A6. That’s not the point. The point is that a company, who actually
　has no right to advertise themselves using the Olympic game
　nor using the name or picture of the athlete, did use Kim Yu-na
　and has been succeeded to sell their products.
　If they were not aware of the commercial effect of Kim Yu-na,
　they wouldn’t allow such an article, which says like
　“J.Estina’s business is prosperous because of Kim Yu-na’s earring!”

Q7. But they say that the earring passed the IOC’s check before the game?
　A7. Maybe IOC did allowed its form or function. But we don’t know yet,
　if IOC was aware of the function of Kim Yu-na’s wearing itself and the whole story.
　She wore the products, which was made for her to wear in the Olympic game,
　which has an obvious logo design of the company,
　which is sold by using Kim Yu-na’s pictures who wears it.

Q8. A earring is just a tiny part of the costume, so it’s not an ad! 　　
　A8. There’re many athletes who do not wear it. But Kim Yu-na wore it
　(another kind of pairs as she wore in SP and FP) at the interview.
　At the same time the company was advertising and selling those products
　using her picture in the Olympic game. So definitely it is an ad!

Q9. The advertisement using Kim Yu-na’s picture is already gone.I cannot see any evidence.
　A9. They cleared the problematic site just after the Olympic game,
　the 3. March, the day IOC lift the official ban on commercials
　using players names, strange enough huh?

Q10. But after all there’s no claim or warning yet from IOC or ISU side, right?
　A.10. It’s possible that they didn’t aware of the advertisement of
　an unofficial company using Kim Yu-na or the name of Olympic itself
　until the end. Btw, an American athlete Lindsay’s goggles were warned
　during the Olympic game and her company did announced the fact on their site,
　on which they mentioned their product which Lindsay was using during the game.

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