Faster, Higher, Stronger... Fatter?

A popular junk-food multinational has its own dreams of glory in sight... to build the biggest eatery of its kind at the Olympic Games site.

Stop and think about it for a second. Why on earth would the greatest athletic competition of all time be partnered with an industry that has single-handedly contributed to increased obesity, heart disease, type-2 diabetes and a list of other health concerns?

According to the article "McDonald's makes 2012 Olympics pledge to create the biggest and busiest Big Mac diner", the food chain’s UK corporate big cheese, Jill McDonald says:

“To be involved in the greatest sporting event on earth is hugely exciting…We want everyone who visits our Olympics park restaurants to have the best possible customer experience, and are confident that the look and feel of these cutting-edge designs will provide that environment.”

I’ve read every single word of the above quote about 20 times now and I can’t find anything there that refers to offering the paying public healthy food options…food options that could (even if one’s imagination) be associated with the healthy, dedicated lifestyle of the elite (drug-free) athletes with which the corporation is indirectly linked through its endorsement with the Games.

The following excerpt from the article floored me!

“The organisers promise a wide range of food available at the Olympics park, including from local suppliers. But it will all have to be unbranded, with only official sponsors afforded the right to have their names on the food they sell.”

Hopefully the public will use common sense and buy a healthy meal, regardless of the fact that it will likely be unbranded.

I’m hoping that those food suppliers offering healthy meal options at the Olympic site will use innovative methods to market themselves and their offerings without getting themselves in trouble with the bureaucratic money-making debacle that has become major sporting events.

The ethics of it all is what really gets to me. You won’t find steroid advertisements at the Olympics because there would be a major outcry focused on the issue of ethics. Why then would the Olympic Games organizers don the other hypocritical hat and get in bed with a junk-food multinational, when the whole ethos of the Games is completely different to that of burgers, fries and trans-fats?!