Does anyone else find it ironic that McDonald’s and Coca Cola are sponsors of the Olympics? I find this so strange because the VAST majority of food sold at McDonald’s would never be fit for a professional athlete trying to be in the shape of their life.The food is highly processed, full of preservatives and fillers, very high in fat, salts and sugars and very limited in overall proportion of vegetables and fruit. It is the beacon for a fast food overweight nation. So I suppose in only that way do McDonald’s and Coca Cola “represent” the United States in the global arena. But certainly not as a symbol of fitness and athleticism!
Ronald McDonald and Olympic athlete Shawn Johnson
And as for Coca Cola? Research has concluded that there is really no reason to drink soda. It is completely bereft of nutrition, unless you count sugar calories, coloring and caffeine as nutrition. According to the Weight of the Nation, it is the only singled-out food that has been directly correlated with the obesity epidemic! So, I find it quite strange and moronic for these companies to be officially related to this world event! These huge food companies operate very similarly to tobacco companies.
I saw this little post on Facebook and it made me laugh
They want to be seen everywhere and be associated in our mind especially with the biggest cultural events. They want to seem “normal” and a part of our every day life so that we don’t question what they are doing -we don’t even really see them any more. They are everywhere! And like the tobacco companies, they will claim to make subtle changes in their formulations (like cigarettes did with “lights” and McDonald’s does with adding fattening salads and Coke did with Diet) in order to assure us that they are on our side.
But the truth of the matter is that their main purpose is to sell as much as possible, as cheaply as possible to as many people possible and as early in life as they can (to make them customers for as long as possible).
Vegetables don’t last long. They also don’t have big subsidies behind them that make them cheap (like commodity beef and corn products). They don’t have big advertising budgets. They take time to prepare. And they don’t stimulate people to overeat which means people wouldn’t overspend/supersize the way they do with the junk food and that means lower profits for them. So veggies and healthful food will never be sold or advertised the way a big cheeseburger, French fries and huge Coke would be.
Q: How is this stuff even appealing? A: Lots and lots of advertising!
Does this bother you in light of the fact that nearly 70% of Americans are overweight or obese? What do you think of fast food and junk foods being the official sponsors of the Olympics? Do you think these types of ads are predatory, especially to children? What do you think should be done, if anything?
On the one hand I think that athletes should be allowed to have whoever they want as sponsors. On the other hand, I think the athletes should be more responsible about who they choose. It is my responsibility to sort through the crap that is advertised, but it is also those athlete’s responsibility to represent responsible behavior. They don’t support drug use, so why would they support unhealthy lifestyle choices? Money, that’s why. I would really like to see some change there, but I think it is an individual responsibility.
Kelley,
Thanks for the comment. It would be great to see some regulation on advertising of this junk in the way that cigarette/tobacco advertising has been regulated. That way the individual wouldn’t have all the burden on their own shoulders. This post isn’t so much pointed toward the individual athlete (although that’s important too), but more to the point of the sponsors of the games in themselves. McDonald’s portends to be the “official restaurant” of the Olympics. That’s pretty big and a powerful influencer on people’s subconscious and positively associates McDonald’s and Coke with the Olympic games. It’s straight out of marketing 101. They are brilliant at selling their product-at the cost of human health unfortunately. From a public health perspective, individual responsibility is the smallest slice of the pie in terms of health indicators (environment, policy, access, community, cultural norms, exposure to advertising etc all being much more important).