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Rather than offend the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing market, not to mention their shareholders, Coke chose to temporarily have “the Coke side of life” associated with genocide, McDonald’s allowed “I’m lovin’ it” to be linked to censorship, and GE ran eco-friendly “Imagination at work” advertising during the most polluted Games ever.

Too much money had been invested, and much more future revenue was at stake.

Perhaps because of this and the determined resistance of the Chinese people, the protests did not gain momentum as the Games approached. If anything, the issues that many had hoped would dominate the Games were given lip service by the networks and ultimately eclipsed by the unprecedented spectacle of the Games themselves. A record U.S. television audience watched an opening ceremony that, Spielberg or not, was universally considered the most spectacular ever.

Chinese officials attempted to placate the human rights community by designating a small corner of a Beijing park an official protest area. But many complained that their applications went ignored or were denied, and other than a brief initial mention of its existence the protest area was forgotten.

So rather than suffering because of their association with the China Games, sponsors like AT&T, GE, GM, ExxonMobil, United Airlines, McDonald’s, and of course NBC itself benefited from record viewership. Thanks to Michael Phelps and an economy that was keeping would-be vacationers at home, more than 200 million Americans watched the Games during prime time, guaranteeing NBC an ad-sales profit of more than $100 million. Online audiences were similarly impressive.

Besides Phelps and the sluggish economy, perhaps American viewers watched in record numbers because, rather than protesting the country that is fulfilling its goal of being the most economically dominant on the planet, they wanted to get a better understanding of it. Maybe we like to watch what scares us (and watching the opening ceremonies, I was both artistically amazed and ideologically unnerved by China’s determination to make a statement). Or maybe, for the most part, we just don’t give a shit about Tibet, or Darfur, or China’s polluted rivers, or censorship.

We’ll never know what Olympic marketers could have gained or lost by taking a strong public stand. This time they clearly won.

But one hopes that before the leaders of a global brand plunk down $100 million on their next high-profile sponsorship, they’ll seek the advice of an ideological consultant, if not their consciences.

Citizen Raj

Coincidentally, the day after the Olympic torch run debacle in San Francisco, I spoke with Robin Raj, co founder and creative director of Citizen Group, a socially responsible, nontraditional ad agency based in San Francisco, whose clients include the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and one of the few global organizations that stood to benefit from the Olympics controversy: Amnesty International.

Indeed, thanks to the Citizen Group–developed work for projects like the global musical event “Instant Karma: The Campaign to Save Darfur” and the live satellite-enabled watchdog Web site Eyes on Darfur (eyesondarfur.org), Amnesty has become the most outspoken organization in the world regarding the human rights situations in Darfur, Tibet, and China.

Having your work win a Clio or a Gold Lion at Cannes may be cool, but having it help prevent genocide is a little different.

In theory, I was checking in with Raj to follow up on projects we’d discussed when I’d visited several months earlier. But because of Raj and Citizen’s long-term involvement with Amnesty International and the fact that the demonstrations had taken place within shouting distance of his agency, I had to first ask about the torch run.

“Yes,” he said, “I saw the protests, and no, I’m not surprised. After all, the Chinese are leading the world in executions, censorship, and pollution.”

“Did you do any kind of campaign for Amnesty around the torch run?”

Raj exhaled and paused before