Selling the rings: Olympic dash for cash leads to a few eyebrow-raising sponsorship deals

Olympic committees striking some unusual deals

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — With the struggling economy leaving a void in sponsorships and the London Games only two years away, Olympic officials have been peddling their brand aggressively.

The result has been some unusual partnerships that marketing experts say leave the Olympic committees open to questioning.

Some examples from the past few weeks include a deal between the U.S. Olympic Committee and German automaker BMW, and another between the International Olympic Committee — which stresses its “green” environmental efforts — and Dow Chemical, which has been the target of criticism from environmental activist groups such as Greenpeace.