At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City photographers captured the moment when Tommie Smith and John Carlos staged their protests. What most people don’t know was that there were not one but two protests: one at the start of the medal presentation ceremony, and the other at the end. The one that has become iconic is of the two athletes, barefoot, heads bowed, each man raising a single gloved fist in the air while the national anthem was played. The second photograph was taken at the start of the ceremony. Standing on the podium, before bending down to receive their medals, each man raised a gloved fist, this time heads held high, and in their other hand was a single Puma shoe. This was the most audacious example of product placement at an Olympic Games up to then.
“They [the Puma shoes] were as important as the black glove and the black sock,” explained Smith afterwards. “I have them [sic] on the stand, because they helped me get there during the race and long before.” After the men had held up their shoes, they placed them next to where they stood, and then accepted their medals. The placement of the shoes was quite deliberate, according to Carlos. “If you look at the way the shoes were placed on the victory stand, Mr. Smith took his shoes and placed them behind him. I took my shoes [sic] and put it where everybody could clearly see the Puma logo.” They had purposely placed the shoes at right angles to each other so that the logo would be picked up regardless of where cameras were positioned.
During those Olympics, Puma and Adidas representatives plied athletes with thousands of dollars to wear their shoes, making medal winners into running and jumping billboards. Best of all for the shoe companies, they did not have to pay the television networks a cent of prime time exposure of their products.
In the past the IOC and athletic associations had enforced its amateur rules with Robespierrian rigor. Yet in Mexico City they did nothing. Why?