Abstract
The 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta represented a turning point in the commercial orientation of the Olympics. While arguably a commercial success, the Atlanta Games were, and continue to be, heavily criticized for their overly commercial nature. Now, more than twenty years after the Atlanta Games, this article retrospectively examines their long-term marketing legacies. Employing a qualitative case design built from a detailed document analysis using a combination of historical and contemporary sources, this article identifies key marketing and organizational events, circumstances, strategies, and challenges of the Atlanta Games and discusses how they have arguably impacted the future course of Olympic marketing and sponsorship in an effort to expand knowledge and understanding of event management-related legacies.
