MERCHANDISING:THERE ARE a number of wondrous sights to assail the first-time visitor lucky enough to gain entrance to the Olympic Park.
Immediately in front is the low-rise but impressive Olympic Stadium. To the left is the Orbit tower, the twisted, spiralling metal structure which is sure to be a visitor attraction after the games. There is also the Aquatic Centre with its wave-shape roof. And there, in the foreground, are the familiar arches of McDonald’s.
This McDonald’s has space for hundreds of people outside on trestle tables, but it is not the main McDonald’s in the Olympic Park. No, the largest in the world is located to the right of the stadium. A temporary structure, it resembles a McDonald’s assembled from an Ikea flatpack with a wooden exterior and interior.
On two floors, it doesn’t look like the biggest McDonald’s in the world unless you include the alfresco area and balconies which have the best views of the park.
When The Irish Times visited earlier this week, the queues were out the door and into an area called the World Park. “It’s 20 minutes waiting from there,” said one Team GB supporter.
Those expecting something special inside will be disappointed. Aside from a Cadbury Wispa Gold McFlurry and a calorie count, the menu is standard fare. A Big Mac meal, for instance, is 990 calories, half the average daily allowance.
Coca-Cola is another ubiquitous presence in Olympic Park. To paraphrase Henry Ford, you can buy any soft drink as long as the brand is owned by Coca-Cola. The company’s pavilion is an admittedly impressive structure called the Beatbox, in the colours of the company, and it resembles a hedgehog left out in the rain.
Both companies have been Olympic sponsors for decades, but it is only now that critics are highlighting the incongruity of having the world’s biggest fast-food purveyor and the world’s biggest manufacturer of sugary nutrition-free drinks sponsoring the world’s biggest sporting event.
The Olympics is being held in Europe’s fattest country, according to the European Commission which found that nearly a quarter of adults in the UK are obese.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge admitted in a Financial Times interview before the Games that the continuing sponsorship was problematic, but the IOC had to weigh up health concerns with the grassroots sponsorship that both companies provided.
UK charity the Children’s Food Campaign disagrees. It estimates that McDonald’s and Coca-Cola only provide 2 per cent of Olympic income, money that should be forgone for the greater good.
In any case, it is too late for these games and the next event in Rio and the one after that. Both McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are signed up as sponsors until 2020 at least.
