You know that cute commercial with Patrick Chan, signing the autograph for the little girl and she asks him to make it out to his mom. It is really heart warming and makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But wait. Something is wrong here… It isn’t the fact that McDonalds’ is selling stainless steel Olympic bottles. Maybe it is the fact that there’s a kid carrying around an uncapped sharpie around (if you are wondering, yes I did watch this video five times to catch something like that), I mean where did she get it from? Who carries around a sharpie when they go to McDonald’s? I guess since Patrick Chan can be found at one it might be useful to have one when you go… Wait Patrick Chan and McDonald’s… An Olympian and a fast food restaurant…What?
As one of my friends pointed out to me recently, what would have Patrick Chan’s nutritionist thought when he saw the commercial? It might go something like “NO!!! Not the McChicken burger!” or “YES! That means I get paid!” Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great that McDonald’s was the official restaurant of the Olympics and that they supported our athletes. However I find it just a tiny bit misleading and it should be taken with a grain of salt and a whole lot of extra analysis. An Olympian would not eat at McDonald’s. Remember the movie Supersize Me – it was quite shocking. The guy, who was 6’2” and 184 pounds, gained 24 pounds and consumed an average of 5000 kcal of energy a day. The suggested average intake for an adult male that size is 2300 kcal, meaning he consumed more than double the suggested amount. The situations are not really comparable, but when you are an athlete on the world stage and every last second counts, your nutritionist isn’t going to support you going out for a Big Mac and you aren’t going to risk your medal hopes and four years of training to go eat a McDonald’s meal.
Another thing is that these people are role models for the children in our society today. They are leaders in their respective sports and they should consider the effect of their words and actions on the society seriously. They should look for funding from companies and corporations that promote good health or even something that is neutral, not a fast food chain. This is a bad example for the children. They are promoting the image that we can consume fast food and still compete on the world stage. We as a society are hounded with media that we brush off and often ignore. Some people didn’t even realize the irony that goes with McDonald’s supporting athletes. This information is being filtered into our minds and we subconsciously crave the Big Mac and associate it with the image of Patrick Chan signing an autograph.
Now, I fully support our athletes and McDonald’s helping them out. The problem is the lack of critical thinking present in our society. Children often don’t realize that yes, this person is shown eating McDonald’s for this commercial, but he is probably doing it so for the money. Kids would also have to realize that the athlete’s nutritionist and coach would lecture him if he actually ended up eating that burger, but are mighty glad that they will get paid. We as young adults are capable of thinking about this issue and realizing that maybe Patrick Chan is not really eating a Big Mac and he is just looking for support for his training and coaching staff. But in reality, when I see the commercial I don’t think of these things, I think of the fact that I love the Olympics and that it is an awesome competition that brings countries together and displays what everyone has to offer. Sometimes I think mmm… the burger that Patrick Chan is holding looks delicious, now I want one too, which is totally not what I would associate with any Olympic athlete (except maybe Usain Bolt), but nonetheless after talking about McDonald’s so much I think I am going to go to V1 and get myself a spicy fried chicken wrap and confuse my brain about how if I went all the way to a McDonald’s to get my fix of fried chicken a bit of my money would go to supporting our athletes at the Olympics.
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