Information on Corporate Sponsors

Coca-Cola * General Electric * Swatch Group * Volkswagen AG

Coca-Cola

Worldwide Olympic Partner

People:
Chairman of the Board, CEO: E. Neville Isdell

HQ Address:
The Coca-Cola Company
P.O. Box 1734
Atlanta, GA 30301

Phone # to have call-ins to (ex. customer service):

• Mark Preisinger, Director of Shareholder Affairs: 404-676-6616
• Tom Mattia, Director of Worldwide Public Affairs and Communications: 404-676-2121
• Ask for CEO E. Neville Isdell at the Headquarters: 404-676-2121

In response to Dream for Darfur’s campaign, Coca-Cola, like many other companies, has touted its humanitarian aid donations (reinvested profits from its beverage sales in Sudan) and its corporate responsibility practices, while neglecting to make any progressive steps to directly address the genocide in Darfur and its link to China and the Olympics. Furthermore, Coke defends its inaction by claiming that it regularly discusses Darfur with the IOC, but steers clear of instructing foreign policy. This is not entirely true, however, because Coke wrote to the United Nations about the issue of climate change just months before Dreams for Darfur asked the company to do the same thing regarding Darfur (which it did not do). In sum, as Dream for Darfur notes, Coke appears to “overlook a basic distinction between direct service and aid on one hand, and working for immediate security on the other. One is not a substitute for the other."¹

Coca-Cola company website

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General Electric

Worldwide Olympic Partner

People:
Chairman of the Board, CEO: Jeffrey R. Immelt

HQ Address:
3135 Easton Turnpike
Fairfield, CT 06828-0001

Phone # to have call-ins to (ex. customer service):

• Deirdre Latour, Director of Public Relations: 203-373-2145
• Gary Sheffer, Executive Director Communications and Public Affairs: 203-373-3476

GE, in communicating with Dream for Darfur, has been relatively open and forthcoming in its position on Darfur. In February 2008, Dream for Darfur received a letter from Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s Chairman and CEO, explaining that he, as well as GE leaders in China, had been briefed on D4D’s campaign. Furthermore, the letter pointed out that GE had brought up the Olympics-Darfur issue with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and that it has donated $4.1 million to relief efforts in Darfur over the past two years. Though GE seems to be sincerely concerned and knowledgeable of the situation, they do not appear to be taking a strong lead in this matter.

GE company website

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Swatch Group

Worldwide Olympic Partner

People:
Chairman of the Board, CEO: Nicolas G. Hayek

HQ Address:
Seevorstadt 6
P.O. Box
2501 Biel / Bienne
Switzerland

Phone # to have call-ins to (ex. customer service):
Phone: +41 32 343 95 80
Fax: +41 32 343 95 81

In a year and a half of correspondence with Swatch Group about the ongoing genocide in Sudan, Dream for Darfur has repeatedly been told that “Swatch Group has defined and upholds a policy of non-intervention on political issues. This policy encourages participation in humanitarian matters."¹ Swatch also mentioned in their correspondence that despite the boycotts of the Olympics in Moscow in 1980 and in Los Angeles in 1984, they still provided timing services. Furthermore, in an effort to demonstrate their involvement in humanitarian issues, Swatch has repeatedly referenced their launch of a “Human Rights Swatch” watch campaign to support the first session of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in 2006.

Swatch Group company website

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Volkswagen AG

Beijing 2008 Partner

People:
Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Ferdinand K. Piëch

HQ Address:
Wolfsburg, Germany 

Phone # to have call-ins to (ex. customer service):

• 1-800-822-8987
• Steven Keyes, Director of Press and Public Relations: 703-364-7650

Blurb:

Dream for Darfur, in their sponsor profile and report card of Volkswagen AG, highlighted the company’s lack of response to the Olympics-Darfur issue by invoking Volkswagen’s historic link to the Holocaust. During the Third Reich, Volkswagen factories used slave labor to manufacture war goods for the German army. Though they set up a compensation fund for former VW slave laborers in 1998, and signed on to the UN Global Compact earlier this year, Volkswagen continues to ignore the connection between the Olympics and the genocide in Darfur.

Volkswagen AG company website

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¹ The Big Chill: Too Scared to Speak, Olympic Sponsors Still Silent on Darfur, Section II—Sponsor Profiles, http://www.dreamfordarfur.org/storage/dreamdarfur/documents/
section%20ii%20-%20sponsor%20profiles%20j+j%20revised.pdf, p22.