A scam of Olympic proportions
November 20, 2009 10:53 AM
Like many students, I headed out to the SUB parking lot this past Tuesday to witness the arrival of the Olympic torch on the StFX campus.
If there ever was an event that could single-handedly solidify my position on the 2010 Olympic Games, boy was that it.
Prior to the arrival of the Olympic flame, the crowd was entertained by two distinct performances: one by Coca Cola, and one by RBC, the official sponsors of the Torch Relay.
When I say entertained “by,” I don’t mean “supported by” as if there was some brief mention of these two entities and their contributions before segueing into the performances.
No, Coke and RBC were the performances. Their logos were centre stage and a substantial part of each segment was spent talking about their financing of the Torch Relay.
In fact, these two segments weren’t entertainment at all; they were pure marketing, and the crowd bought it: hook, line, and sinker.
Standing there, I was more transfixed by the audience than by what was going on onstage. Here were children from schools in the community, brought to this “once-in-a-lifetime” event with their classmates, cheering as they hoisted Canadian flags with one hand and RBC-branded tambourines in the other.
At one point, I glanced to the road in time to see a red vehicle sporting the Coca-Cola logo flying a full-size maple leaf off the side.
There it was in our own backyard: the successful cooption of national pride by two major corporate interests.
Three cheers for Coke and Canada, eh?
The conflation of these corporate logos with the emblem of the true north, strong and free is as dangerous as it is nauseating.
If Coca Cola can position itself as a friendly giant that ‘gives back’ by sponsoring Canada’s Olympic Team, who knows what degree of reverence it can secure from athletes and their fans across the country.
It would certainly help to mask the already downplayed sins of Coca Cola, like its record of human rights abuses and environmental crimes in Latin America and Asia.
Or maybe RBC’s financing of the Alberta tar sands will be less of an issue now that Antigonish’s new library will house a painting – with a very conveniently placed RBC logo – as memorabilia from the Torch Relay.
The commercial aspect of the Olympics is continually posited as simply a financial boost to athletes, helping them to achieve their life-long dreams. But really, it isn’t.
The commercial aspect is the whole ball game.
Let’s just call a spade a spade. From the awarding of contracts for the construction of new facilities to the millions that change hands when television networks are granted broadcasting rights, the Games are absolutely a cash cow.
Money is doled out to big names, bad names, and taxpayers bear a heavy burden.
Meanwhile, those who have opposed the Olympics – for a number of wholly legitimate reasons – have had their cause delegitimized in the mainstream press.
There are those who have decried the $1 billion construction of the 1,100-unit athletes’ village because, during the same period, 850 low-income housing units in Vancouver have been eliminated.
There are also those who point to the active criminalization and displacement of the city’s homeless in preparation for the Olympics as an act perhaps a little on the immoral side when you’re inviting the world to experience the ‘greatness’ of Canada.
But these critics have been ridiculed.
It’s obscene how easily corporate interests are poised as friends and picketers are presumed enemies in the context of the Olympic Games.
Seeing the willingness of Tuesday’s crowd to cheer for the Torch Relay’s corporate sponsors was one of the most uncomfortable scenes I’ve ever witnessed.
From where I was standing, what was occurring wasn’t the celebration of the athletic talent, but rather, the usurpation, commodification, and exploitation of national pride to further a commercial interest.
The Olympics make the maple leaf a logo, and Canada a brand.
Unfortunately, most are willing to buy it up.
