YOUTH & 2010

Corporate & Olympic Targeting of Children & Youth

“Corporate targeting of children and adolescents was not a new phenomenon; since the 1980s, establishing brand loyalty at an increasingly young age was a mark of success for the multinationals pushing their unique brand of clothing, toys, computer games, sporting goods, soft drinks, and snack foods on youthful consumers.”
(The Best Olympics Ever?, pp. 125-126)

Children and youth are a primary target for corporate advertising, and the Olympic Industry is no different. In fact, Olympic Games are themselves a convenient platform for the introduction of corporate culture (i.e., capitalist ideology) to children and youth, as well as the creation of new consumers.

During the Sydney 2000 Olympics and the years leading up to it, Olympic organizers-- in collaboration with government officials-- carried out large-scale Olympic propaganda efforts in schools. Coca-Cola and IBM were the main sponsors for Australia’s Olympic Schools Strategy, which consisted of Olympic kits aimed at promoting ‘Olympic ideals’. These were supplied to every school in 1995, and again in 1998.

Other efforts by Olympic organizers included intensive ‘education’ campaigns (advertising), including free newspapers, web sites, and public events. Although IOC guidelines prohibit the display of corporate logos in Olympic venues, ‘educational’ kits supplied to schools were filled with them. In August 2000, a newspaper article revealed that annual literacy and math tests in the state of New South Wales for 200,000 grades 3 & 5 students had a Sydney 2000 Olympic theme.

In early Janaury 2008, VANOC announced it was seeking a licensee for office and school supplies, for “a broad range of image-branded office and school supplies” including rulers, erasers, pencils, scissors, etc., with VANOC’s new mascots.

2010 Mascots Target Children & Youth

In late November 2007, VANOC revealed its 2010 mascots at a Bell Canada sponsored event in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver. With just 27 shopping days before Christmas, the mascots were unveiled in front of 800 elementary school children, specially bussed in for the event. The mascots, in fact, are aimed at child & youth markets, with artwork based on Japanimation, a popular phenomenon with kids & teens (found in comics, video games, cartoons, clothing, toys, etc.).

Shortly after their debut, the mascots visited the Vancouver Board of Trade, on far more serious business and another photo op, this time with sponsors Bell Canada and the Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC). Sales of 2010 mascot toys & other merchandise are expected to be worth some $500 - $600 million.

The characters of the mascots are drawn from Indigenous stories & family crests. Two of the mascots (Miga and Sumi) are ‘transformer’ type beasts, or mutant freaks, depending on how you look at them. One is part killer whale, part bear, based on an Indigenous Northwest Coast crest (a Sea Bear). It resembles a cute & cuddly, fuzzy bear, with a dorsal fin sticking out of its head! The other, a cross between a bear, a thunderbird, and a whale, has three horns across its head.

Oddly, the fact that they are so ‘weird’ fits in with the bizarre range of characters that populate Pokeymon (a popular children’s cartoon, & game) in the first place. The only ‘normal’ one of the three is Quatchi, a giant, Sasquatch-type ape, with the Olympic rings tattooed on his arm, making him look like a VANOC goon.

Some advertising experts called the designs ‘disasters’, saying they would be more appropriate in China or Japan, due to their Japanimation-influenced style. However, due to the popularity of Japanese animation styles with children & youth the world over, VANOC clearly has a much broader vision of its potential sales market than the children of any one particular country.

2010 Olympic School Programs

Through 2010 Legacies Now, a government-funded initiative, Olympic propaganda finds its way into schools across the province. These include arts & culture events, as well as sports activities. Some are directed specifically at Indigenous youth, including Aboriginal Youth Sports Challenge. In January 2008, VANOC announced it was seeking companies to produce office & school supplies branded with Olympic images.

2010 School Closures

In November 2007, the Howe Sound School district announced plans to alter its 2010 Spring Break schedule, in order to coincide with the Olympic Games. In Whistler, part of the school district, this means a two week elementary school closure, and a 3-week closure of secondary schools. Parent’s Advisory councils quickly passed resolutions opposed to the plans, saying it would require increased childcare capacity to support parents. The greatest impact of school closures would be felt on poor working parents.

In January 2008, Simon Fraser University’s Senate, the academic governing board, approved a two-week break in classes during the 2010 Olympics. They cited the potential for transit services to be heavily impacted by 2010, and that “The time off would also give students & faculty a chance to volunteer at the games…” (“Class out during Olympics,” Vancouver Sun, January 9, 2008).

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