Did Samsung withdraw from a $1 billion Olympics sponsorship after the opening ceremony for the Paris Summer Games in July 2024? No, that's not true: The website that said so is a self-described satire site that says it brings the "freshest fake news." As of August 2, 2024, there are no actual news reports that Samsung pulled their sponsorship of the Paris Olympics.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Threads on July 29, 2024. It said:
Samsung Drops Out Of $1 Billion Advertising Gig With Olympics, 'They've Gone Woke'
This is what the post looked like on Threads at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Fri Aug 2 14:39:44 2024 UTC)
The claim about Samsung dropping out of a $1 billion advertising deal with the Olympics came from a July 28, 2024, SpaceXMania article (archived here) titled, "Breaking: Samsung Withdraws $1 Billion Sponsorship from Paris Olympics, 'Woke Agenda.'"
The website has a disclaimer (archived here) that reads:
SpaceXMania does not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability, and accuracy of this information.
Underneath the About Satire section on the disclaimer page, it reads:
Please note that the article under the category 'SATIRE' are satirical in nature and are not meant to be taken seriously. These articles are meant to be humorous and are often entirely made up. We make no claim that the information presented in these articles is true or accurate.
A Google search of keywords (archived here) from the claim returned no matching news articles about Samsung dropping their Olympics advertising deal, which would have been international news had it actually happened.
Lead Stories contacted Samsung for comment and will update this fact check when a response is received.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks mentioning SpaceXMania can be read here.
Other Lead Stories fact checks related to the Olympic Games can be found here.
