• NY Times, Thursday, February 23, 2006 12:45 PM

The winter Olympics may have its share of thrills and spills, but as far as marketers looking for the next big celebrity endorser are concerned, the event is a big yawn. Advertisers went into the games hoping to find superstars to represent their brands, but so far none have emerged. "Over all, there's a sense of blah," says Nova Lanktree, the executive vice president for marketing at CSMG Sports, a Skokie, Ill.-based marketing company. With four days left, no American has won multiple gold medals, and the athletes that were heavily hyped have largely failed to live up to expectations. "It's probably the most hyped and most disappointing Olympic team we've had," Bob Williams, the president of Burns Entertainment & Sports Marketing, said. Even worse for Madison Avenue, the U.S. team has been saddled with accusations and incidents of bad manners and poor sportsmanship, such as U.S. speed skater Chad Hedrick's open feud with teammate Shani Davis.

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