• Ad Age, Friday, February 12, 2010 10:39 AM

McDonald's, which has been the official restaurant of the Olympics for more than 33 years, yesterday trotted out athletes Katarina Witt, Shawn Johnson, Picabo Street and Cassie Campbell in a media event that featured its new line of smoothies and drove home its recurring theme of food quality, Emily York reports.

The athletes were captains of teams of children from around the world who had won a contest. Their objective yesterday was to create a delicious smoothie in 90 seconds; a strawberry pineapple concoction from Team Johnson took the gold.

The fast-food chain hosts a microsite where consumers can see how items like a Big Mac get made. "The way we view it right now, telling the quality story is an everyday part of marketing core," says global CMO Mary Dillon. "We find whenever we talk to our customers, there's still an 'aha' factor [to the quality story], whether it's in traditional or social media."

Bloomberg's John Helyar and Christopher Donville, meanwhile, tells us why Kodak is sitting out its first Olympics since the modern Games began in 1896, joining whippersnapper Home Depot in rejecting the 17-day, mass-market event.

"I don't think the Olympics have lost their appeal at all, but the digital revolution, the economic recession and the saturation of major sports events around the world have made Olympic sponsorships a tougher sell," says Rick Burton, former U.S. Olympic Committee marketing chief and now the David Falk Professor of Sports Management at Syracuse University.

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