Tom Doctoroff: Don’t boycott the Olympics

Tom Doctoroff, top ad man for agency JWT’s China operations, has a blog column on the Huffington Post.

His latest post looks at the possibility of an Olympic boycott, and argues against it:

Tîbet, Beijing and Olympic Sponsors: To Boycott or Not

I have been working in Shanghai as an ad man since 1998. I have also been privileged to enjoy a courtside seat as China gears up its infrastructure and emotions for the Beijing 2008 Olympics. I am also a “official” torch bearer, slated to carry the Olympic flame 200 meters sometime this summer, somewhere in the Middle Kingdom hinterland…

…As a American raised with an unshakable belief in the righteousness of Western values and institutions — the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; universal human rights; bottom-up representative democracy; and efficient capital markets — I instinctively empathize with the impulses of the protesters. However, as someone who has lived in China for almost a decade, sometimes frustrated by the lack of a fully developed civil society but often inspired by the ambition and heart of the Chinese nation and people, I believe that both governments and corporate sponsors should — no, must — continue to support the Games.

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