Numbers game

By Steve Brearton
Illustration: Seth

Ready, set, spend

In 1924, advertising arrived at the Olympics. Today, more than ever, the enormity of the Games depends on the financial support of corporations

2.6 Millions of US dollars paid to secure a 30-second ad at the 2006 Super Bowl. McDonald’s restaurants chose to pass on the NFL championship and advertise at the Turin Games that year, where US$700,000 secured the same result.

35 to 50 Millions of US dollars spent by Visa International during its two-year Calgary Games campaign. “At the 1988 Winter Olympics, they will honor speed, stamina and skill. But not American Express,” read one ad criticized for bending the truth to take aim at a rival.

45 Olympic advertisers who received “make-good” ads in the wake of the 1984 Sarajevo Games where there were one-third the viewers ABC had projected.

82 Years Coca-Cola has advertised at Winter and Summer Games, beginning in Amsterdam in 1928.

386 Millions of US dollars secured by the 1988 Calgary Winter Games for selling broadcasting rights to ABC. Squaw Valley, Calif., received US$50,000 from CBS in 1960.

900 Millions of US dollars received by NBC for advertising sold during the 2006 Turin Olympic coverage.

1999 Year Johnson & Johnson pulled out of a sponsorship deal worth an estimated US$30 million after it was divulged that members of Salt Lake City’s bid committee had bribed Olympic Committee members to secure the Games.