So you’re watching the Olympic Games and the usual suspects appear as advertisers… There’s Visa, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s…and BHP Billiton (NYSE ADR:BHP)? Who are those guys, anyway?

It does seem unusual for one of the biggest mining companies to sponsor the Beijing Games.

But as it turns out, this massive marketing campaign wasn’t targeted at Joe Sixpack watching the Olympics.

It was payback to Beijing, says Irwin Greenstein, writing for Contrarian Profits.