In this article by Dan Gardner, he says that Olympics are being funded by the government on public money to endorse healthy lifestyles. With that, companies as powerful as Coca-Cola and McDonalds are paying mass amounts of money to be official sponsors of the Olympics. These companies are associating their own brand with the Olympics to further endorse themselves. This is contributing to obesity that the government is trying to fight, by spending billions on the Olympics. This article was published by The Ottawa Citizen on February 20th 2010. Author, Dan Gardner is a columnist and senior writer with The Ottawa Citizen, Gardner is a respected author who has won awards such as The National Newspaper Award in 2002. This article is an opinion piece. Gardner is completely biased throughout the article and even goes as far to say,
“And then I remember Cindy Klassen is making a good buck pitching crap. To kids. My kids. And that makes me want to stuff an Egg McMuffin down her throat.”
While Gardner explains his negativity towards Cindy Klassen and the Empire of McDoanlds and Coca-Cola, he makes his bias evident as he explains the target of this market is to children. Gardner does catch himself saying this in reference to Klassen.
“Not that I would, you understand. I’m sure she’s a perfectly lovely person.”
This article doesn’t directly quote anyone besides Gardner himself. He does however use exerts from the McDonalds website and commercials. Cindy Klassen, Canada’s famed athlete is used in the McDonalds commercial eating a McMuffin, when a McDonalds employee walks up to her the commercial recognizes that they will both be going to the Olympics. Thus leading viewers to believe that Klassen eats McDoanlds every once in awhile. Gardner is trying to say that, with the rising obesity rate, the Olympics are funded to advertise against obesity, but major sponsors like McDonalds are doing the exact opposite. By using athletes in their commercials it makes it look okay to eat the junk that McDonalds serves. To me this article just proves how desperate the Olympics are for money and getting publicity. I’m sure without junk sponsors they wouldn’t be doing to bad.
For myself, this article proves the controversy that surrounds the Olympics. The fact that they are money hungry, and will go to all extents to ensure they receive the most publicity and money. Seeing a Canadian athlete advertising for McDonalds is alarming, seeing how I highly doubt she eats there regularly.
This shows how big corporations have taken over the world. McDonalds is the highest grossing fast food chain, and has had a ton of celebrities endorse their product. I guess in the world of business and money it is normal to exploit people and do whatever it takes to make tons of money. I highly doubt Cindy Klassen was relying on her McDonalds cheque to send her to the Olympics.
For McDonalds all publicity is good. Even after the documentary Supersize Me, McDonalds is raking in the cash. So for them to advertise with the Olympics is just another way of showing the world how great they think they are.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/lovin+Olympic+junk+food+peddlers/2588131/story.html
