Unfortunate peanut incidents from last week aside, I have been bored out of my mind since the Vancouver Olympics ended on Feb. 28. No more mid−afternoon curling marathons on CNBC, no more awesomeness that is the biathlon, no more South Korean figure skaters breaking all kinds of records. And don't even get me started on how much I miss holding my breath every time Apolo Ohno stepped onto the ice for short track speed skating.
The only silver lining to the end of the Olympics is the end of the advertisements airing during the Games and, in turn, the end of the inane complaining associated with the food ads.
Every Olympics has some sort of food−related buzz around it, whether positive or negative. Before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, concerns over poor food safety practices circulated. Event organizers responded by creating the Olympic Food Safety Command Center to monitor food preparations. Turin, Italy, is a hotspot for the slow foods movement, and the organizers of the 2006 Winter Olympics received praise for their use of local ingredients. Vancouver had its own scandal when 147 out of the 424 food vendors at the games failed health inspections.
These are actual food problems, unlike the mudslinging that has been going on over ads from Olympics advertisers McDonald's and Coca Cola surrounding the Vancouver Games. Every food writer, blogger and critic that I can think of from here to British Columbia has put in his or her two cents about the ads. The general consensus is that it's inappropriate for companies to use the Olympics as a platform to promote unhealthy fast food and soft drinks. McDonald's ads featuring Olympians chowing down on Big Macs and McNuggets in particular have taken a lot of heat, with critics claiming that the scenario is completely unrealistic, as athletes maintain strict diets in order to be in peak physical condition.Canada's Childhood Obesity Foundation has spoken out against McDonald's and Coca Cola, claiming that the it sends a bad message to children who look up to Olympians by spreading an image that they gorge on soda and burgers.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would support the Golden Arches, but come on people, enough is enough. The Olympics are a business, and they need advertising partners just like any other corporation. If the money that McDonald's and Coca Cola give to the International Olympics Committee (IOC) makes the Games possible, then so be it. And the advertisements are not exactly false; athletes are not shown eating Mickey D's as part of their training regimen, just as a meal after a victory.
The partnership between McDonald's and the IOC extends through the 2012 London Games, so unfortunately, the cry against the 2010 ads has recently changed to a call to end McDonald's status as the Official Restaurant of the Olympics. It's not going to happen. McDonald's and Coca Cola are two of 12 corporations that are part of the Olympics' TOP sponsorship program. In exchange for their sponsorship, TOP members get exclusive benefits, such as the use of the Olympic logo in their advertisements.
To the further chagrin of critics, early reports of McDonald's' post−Olympics performance indicate that the advertisements have done their job. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company reported a 4.8 percent increase in sales in restaurants open more than a year in the United States, and an 11 percent increase in same−store sales internationally. This is a major upswing from five straight months of slumping same−store sales.
Personally, I can't wait for two more weeks of non−stop, 24−hour entertainment during the London Games, and if that means Coke and Mickey D's are at the helm, so be it.
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Caryn Horowitz is a senior majoring in history. She can be reached at Caryn.Horowitz@tufts.edu.
