Since then, every Summer and Winter Olympic Games has adopted a strict smoke-free policy, and since 2010, a completely tobacco-free policy. Smoking is not permitted in any of the Paris 2024 venues, except in designated areas. rule that extends to vaping.
Alcoholic beverage companies are another category of controversyl Olympic sponsors, from Molson Brewery at the 1976 Montreal Olympics to Heineken at the 2004 Athens Games.
Although IOC partners with AB InBevThe world’s leading brewer, Corona Zero (a non-alcoholic beverage) is the global beer sponsor of the Paris Olympic Games. The Olympic Committee says this underlines the “commitment of both organisations to responsible drinking and a better world.”
Initiatives such as the Kick Big Soda Out of Sport campaign do not come out of nowhere. At the London 2012 Olympics, Coca-Cola’s sponsorship, which included several promotional activities focused on youth participation, was faced with significant reactionAnd in 2021, the company’s sponsorship changed; Coca-Cola now has a joint “Olympic partner,” or TOP, agreement with Mengniua Chinese dairy company, making them the exclusive non-alcoholic beverage sponsor of the Games. (The TOP program is the Olympic Games program the highest level of sponsorship.)
“Coca-Cola is positively associated with a dairy company and the ‘health halo’ that comes with it,” says Joe Piggin, Senior Lecturer in Sport Policy at Loughborough University. So while a joint sponsorship may appear to reduce the importance of Coca-Cola’s funding, strategically this move actually enhances the company’s sponsorship and its future longevity.
From 2021 to 2032 (when its contract above), the joint sponsors will pay an estimated total of 3 billion dollars to the IOC. The list of 14 Coca-Cola athletes was revealed in the run-up to the 2024 Games. The face of this campaign is this picturein which athletes hold bottles of Coca-Cola drinks. Some athletes hold Coca-Cola itself with all the sugar, which has 53 grams of sugar per 500ml—almost double the recommended amount daily sugar intake For an adult.
Many of the athletes hold Powerade Original, another of Coca-Cola’s drinks, which contains 5.8 grams of sugar per 600 ml bottle, almost 20% of the recommended daily intake. (Powerade is also the official drink of the United States Olympic team.)
Experts have said this marketing strategy mirrors Olympic athletes of the past who promoted cigarettes. recent project The Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society investigated this issue and noted that Harold “Dutch” Smith, a champion high jumper, was quoted in a 1935 Saturday Evening Post advertisement as saying, “Camels don’t take the wind out of you.”
“If a tobacco company tried to run an ad on a television network during the Olympics, there would be an uproar. It should be no different for Coca-Cola,” says Lustig. (“The Coca-Cola company offers a wide range of beverage options including dairy drinks and juices, as well as water, tea, coffee, and soft drinks, with many sugar-free options available,” an IOC spokesperson tells WIRED.)
“We urge sports organisations to stop promoting unhealthy foods and drinks and work with health experts to create a healthier food environment,” said Zoe Davies, nutritionist at Action on Sugar, in a statement sent to WIRED.
Coca-Cola did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. “The company has used its front groups to advance the argument that the Lack of physical exercise and not your sugary drinks “They are fueling an obesity crisis,” says Corporate Responsibility researcher Ashka Naik. Yet Coca-Cola has been Criticized for his manipulation of science to justify this shifting of blame.
Experts WIRED spoke to consistently argued that Coca-Cola should be the next Olympic sponsor to go, but they don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.
Many experts suggested that change should not be left to the organizations themselves. To prevent sports organizations from “grabbing money from ultra-processed food companies,” “public policy measures” must be adopted, says Lustig. “When there are more votes than dollars, then things will change.”