While millions worldwide indulged extensive coverage of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the corporate sponsors of the event opportunistically exploited the moment to whitewash their dubious reputations.
Sponsors of the London Olympics include Visa, Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Cadbury, Heineken, Adidas and Proctor and Gamble but the ones that have most enraged protesters are Dow Chemical, BP (British Petroleum) and Rio Tinto.
Dow’s reputation has yet to recover from the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster in India. An estimated 25,000 people were killed when tons of poison gas leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant. Over half-a -million people suffered significant injuries and approximately 10,000 more died in the aftermath.
In 1989, Union Carbide brokered a settlement with the Indian government for $470 million, amounting to $1500 per death and $500 per victim.
Dow has since acquired Union Carbide’s assets but refuses to accept responsibility for its liabilities, rebuffing demands to compensate victims or clean up the contaminated disaster site. Critics argue that the millions it cost Dow to sponsor the Olympics could have been better spent helping the victims of the Bhopal disaster.
Dow’s $100 million deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) includes an agreement to build the wrap surrounding the Olympic Stadium.
BP is still reeling following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the most catastrophic oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. The spill irreparably damaged marine and wildlife habitats and the Gulf’s fishing and tourism industry.
According to BP’s sponsorship page, the company intends to use the Olympics to promote “potential new and more sustainable mobility options” by investing $1 billion annually in alternative energy. No mention is made of the $38 billion the British oil company has spent on the Deepwater spill, a drop in the bucket compared to the disaster’s full cost.
Dave Zirin, sportswriter for The Nation, claims BP is “seeking to burnish its own reputation” damaged by the Deepwater spill in the Gulf and other bad publicity.
Zirin goes further by stating that the $100 million that global corporations have paid to associate themselves with the Olympic brand is akin to “corporate sin-washing.”
"More than any other enterprise, if a company associates themselves with an Olympics, it really creates a positive feeling in the mind of the consumer," said Zirin. "If you look at the main sponsors that the International Olympic Committee has brought on board, you see companies like Dow Chemicals, British Petroleum..." These companies, he says, are some of "the worst corporate criminals" in the world.
Rio Tinto, a mining corporation based in London, has been widely criticized by environmental groups who allege its practices have resulted in environmental degradation. Rio Tinto’s copper mine in Utah has been blamed for rising toxicity levels that have resulted in the state’s extraordinarily high rates of autism and decreasing test scores among school children.
Dr. Brian Moench, President of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, accuses Rio Tinto of polluting the air, water and soil near the mine with lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury, and points out that the Great Salt Lake “has the highest levels of mercury of any body of water in the United States.” Last year Forbes magazine ranked Salt Lake City as the ninth most toxic city in the country.
“We recently found out that Utah has the highest rate of autism of any state in the US, one out of every 32 Utah boys,” says Dr. Moench. “Evidence is mounting that the rising rates of this often tragic condition is likely triggered by environmental exposures, and at the top of that list of suspects are heavy metals.”
Still others have pointed out the hypocrisy of the IOC for selling sponsorships to McDonald’s, Coca Cola and Cadbury, companies that have contributed to obesity in both children and adults. It’s highly unlikely that any of the health-conscious athletes competing this year include their products on their training table.
This arrangement between the organizers of the London Olympics and ruthless corporations like Dow, BP and Rio Tinto, however unseemly and disreputable it may be, is entirely appropriate considering what the Olympic games have become since the corporations took control. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were the first dominated by corporate sponsorship that reaped $338 million from their investment. By the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona the profits doubled to $700 million. This year the take is expected to top $2 billion.
Underlying all of this is the repulsive attempt of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) to scrounge ever last nickel out its investment. The committee sold the IOC (International Olympic Committee) on an “ambush marketing” plan banning the words “gold, silver, bronze, summer, 2012 and London” for use except by official sponsors.
A LOCOG document entitled “Brand Protection” defines ambush marketing as “the sale and counterfeit of unofficial goods and other similar activities.” It claims the failure to neutralize ambush marketing will damage the quality of the Games and negatively impact “the potential for leaving a financial legacy for sport in the UK…”
LOCOG’s document continues: “Ambush marketing describes a business’ attempts to attach itself to a major sports event without paying sponsorship fees. As a result, the business gains the benefits of being associated with the goodwill and public excitement around the event for free. This damages the investment of genuine sponsors, and risks the organizer’s ability to fund the event.” the
Ambush marketing is described by LOCOG as parasitic or guerilla marketing. Not surprisingly, nothing is said of the “parasitic and guerilla” money-lending practices of the international financiers who gobbled up the corporations who sponsor the Olympics like pieces on a Monopoly board.
To enforce the particulars of its “Brand Protection” policy, LOCOG has employed a special squad of 300 uniformed “officers” recruited from local councils across England. They have the authority to enter premises and take offenders to court, with threats of fines up to £20,000.
Among those targeted by LOCOG’s “brand police" are
-A butcher who formed sausage links in the shape of the Olympic ring was summarily ordered to remove the display
-A sandwich shop whose menu included a “flaming torch baguette” was ordered to discontinue the item.
-An online knitting team named Raverly that organized an event called the “Ravelympics” was forced to change the name.
Londoners who were told the Olympics were an opportunity for the population to make the games their own have instead experienced what one columnist has described as “the poisoned grip of the ruling elite.”
The IOC, whose membership is comprised entirely of the international elite, has enforced its corporate control of London 2012 with the help of 50,000 soldiers, police and security guards.
While it is claimed they are there to guard against potential terrorist threats, they are in fact “five times the number of British troops deployed in Afghanistan at the height of the war,” according to columnist Neil Faulkner.
Faulkner reveals the utter contempt the elite IOC has for the peasants of England who financed the $14.5 billion price tag required to host the Games:
“Some 2.2 million tickets – 25% of the total, and perhaps two-thirds or more at premier events – have been reserved for the millionaires: VIPs, Olympic officials, invited ‘guests’, and corporate sponsors. Most of the public who applied for some of the 6.6 million tickets on sale got nothing. It is estimated that half those who staked £1,000 and two-thirds of those who staked £250 got no tickets. Most poor people never had a chance. The great majority of those living around the Stratford stadium will not be going to the Games.”
A source of embarrassment for organizers has been the large sections of empty seats unoccupied by disinterested elitists.
Once regarded as the pinnacle of athletic achievement, the Olympics have become a showcase for the considerable imperfections of our sporting heroes. Moreso than any other Olympics in history, the 2012 London Games have been noteworthy for numerous accusations (and admissions) of cheating, foul play, unsportsmanlike behavior and debauchery.
French cyclists have accused the British of using illegal drugs and banned equipment. American and South African swimmers have admitted to and justified cheating to win.
Near the end of France’s 66-59 loss to Spain, France’s Nicolas Batum punched Spain’s Juan-Carlos Navarro in the groin. Batum was neither ejected from the game nor suspended.
In the women’s soccer semifinal, Canada was cheated out of a chance at a gold medal by a corrupt referee. The U.S. team, which went on to win the gold medal, disgraced themselves and their country with a totally classless celebration donning t-shirts that read, “Greatness has been found.”
Controversy erupted last week when unauthorized condoms were discovered in the Olympic village. Durex, a condom company that purchased exclusive rights to supply athletes with 150,00 free rubbers, demanded an investigation.
The icing on the cake is the tales of debauchery surrounding the Olympic village, described by athletes as an unrestrained sex-fest. U.S. Women’s goalie Hope Solo estimated that “70 to 75 percent of Olympians” engage in oral sex and admitted to her own sexual encounter with an unnamed Hollywood celebrity. Solo’s slutty behavior further illustrates the degenerate leanings of the modern Olympics and its corporate string-holders.
The only silver lining to this sordid story is that the Olympic games only take place once every four years, which should provide sufficient time to clear the air of the foul stench left behind. |