McAdvertising

Guess what people! It’s almost time for the Olympics and I am stoked. I love the Olympics. It is the one event where the world’s best athletes in their respective sports gather together and compete to see who can call themselves the best. It is a time of greatness, competition, sacrifice, and advertising…

Wait… advertising? Yeah, I’m talking about advertising. Look around. Every major sporting event is now sponsored by one or more (usually more) major corporation. Take for example, The Olympics. It is being sponsored by several major companies that include Omega, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Visa.

Some of the Olympic sponsors make sense, like Omega. Omega is a timepiece manufacture, and since all Olympic events have to keep time for one reason or another, it makes perfect sense to have a company like this as one of the sponsors. However, some of the sponsors make no sense to me at all.

Mc Donald’s for instance. It boggles my mind as to why a sporting event like the Olympics is sponsored by a fast food chain like Mc Donald's. Have you had a Mickey D’s burger lately? They are just as much a heart attack waiting to happen as ever, not something one would expect a world class athlete to be eating on a regular basis. Yet, back in the 70’s they were able to latch themselves onto the Olympic name and they put enough money into it that they will never be gone from the games. And people wonder why there is a childhood obesity problem in this country.

The Olympics should be a time when we are inspired to better ourselves physically. Yet we now receive a double message because of sponsors like McDonald’s and Coke. That message being you can still eat fating food on a regular basis and be able to compete at an International level which is a complete lie. Go talk to any Olympic athlete. They will tell you that they are very careful about what they eat and drink. Yeah, they will have a McGrease Burger and a Coke from time to time, but it is very rare for them to do so.

Now, do I you to go out and start a revolution demanding new advertising sponsors for the Olympics? No, let be honest. Too much money is involved, and for a company like McDonald’s to feel it would be in there best interest to pull out as Olympic sponsor, a lot of things would have to happen internationally. I do think the world would be better off if McDonald’s chose how they advertised during the games a bit differently, but that also isn’t going to change any time soon.