LG Electronics suspends Olympic ads

LG Electronics, Korea’s second-largest consumer electronics maker, temporarily suspended its television advertisements promoting the company’s Cinema 3-D Smart TV and the London Olympics last week.

The company stopped showing its ads for two days after receiving a warning from the Korean Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee, according to media reports.

Non-Olympic corporate sponsors are not allowed to market their brands or products using the word “Olympic.”

LG Electronics’ 3-D Smart TV ads starring popular film actor Won Bin and K-pop group Girls’ Generation mention that they will see the 2012 Olympic Games in 3-D on LG’s Cinema Smart TV.

LG’s rival Samsung Electronics is the official Olympic sponsor in Korea and can only promote its mobile devices, but not television.

Japan-based Panasonic is the official television sponsor.

LG Electronics said that it has started re-broadcasting the ads after correcting its mistakes late Friday.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)