NBC reporters in Sochi get Starbucks, everyone else left with McDonalds
Starbucks may not be an Olympic sponsor but they are getting press anyway as news leaked that NBC employees at the Sochi games are getting 24/7 service of the popular coffee while everyone else is let to patron the closest McCafe.
NPR reporter Sonari Glinton followed a drinker with the Starbucks cup and discovered “It came from the ‘office,’ she said—the Olympic broadcasting center where NBC has its own secret Starbucks,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
NBC “has erected the Sochi Starbucks in its cordoned-off area of the Olympic media center. Baristas serve the free java 24-hours-a-day to the roughly 2,500 people NBC says it sent here.”
“NBC flies in a rotating crew of some 15 baristas from Starbucks coffee shops in Russia, sets them up with accommodations in Sochi, and pays their regular wages. As with past Games, Starbucks has gladly cooperated with the effort.”
NBC says its Starbucks doesn’t run afoul of Olympic rules, which prevent nonsponsor companies from showing their brands or offering products at Games facilities. Their logic: The secret coffee shop is secluded within an NBC facility and isn’t open to the public. “It’s a personal item,” says John Fritsche, NBC’s senior vice president of Olympic operations, who calls the drinks perk “a huge morale booster.”