The anti-commerce magazine Multinational Monitor published a report today critical of how commercialized the games have become. In China, 63 companies sponsor the Olympic committee and athletes; in the U.S., the number is above 100.
The Olympics have auctioned off virtually every aspect of the Games to the highest bidder. In addition to multimillion dollar sponsorship deals between the International Olympic Committee and international companies, smaller firms are paying for designations from “official home and industrial flooring supplier” to the “frozen dumplings exclusive supplier” of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
Not that there's anything wrong with it. someone's got to supply the frozen dumplings, and they might as well get a little bounce out of the effort. But the report does point out that there is nothing in the Olympic Charter about raking in dollars or shilling for brewers and fast food restaurants.
It left me wondering how much the need for sponsorship cash is an inevitable result of the biennial one-upmanship in Olympics as global spectacle. Every Olympic cycle, countries set new spending records, blowing wads of cash on viral construction of extravagant buildings, and fireworks displays like some kind of blossoming rash. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Greeks compete naked, in the dirt?
Via Huffington Post.
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