The Olympic Games are meant to be a celebration of human potential, athleticism, and international unity. But for AB InBev, the world’s largest beer producer, the Games are yet another vehicle to push their brands onto a global audience. In a move that further entrenches Big Alcohol’s presence in sports, AB InBev has confirmed the extension of its sponsorship deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) through 2032.
This agreement ensures that AB InBev brands will continue to flood Olympic venues, broadcasts, and digital platforms for nearly a decade. It also raises urgent questions about the ethics of allowing a company that profits from an addictive and harmful product to associate itself with one of the world’s biggest sporting events.
The Olympics, with its vast global audience, provides an unparalleled platform for alcohol brands to increase visibility and reach new consumers, including young people. This deal secures AB InBev’s monopoly over Olympic beer sales and branding, ensuring its products remain closely linked to one of the most-watched sporting spectacles on earth.
The 2024 Paris Olympics marked the first time Big Alcohol officially sponsored the Games, setting a precedent that continues with this new deal. AB InBev’s brands have since been prominently featured, and this extended partnership guarantees that their influence over the event’s commercial landscape will persist well into the next decade.
The continued partnership between the IOC and AB InBev blatantly contradicts global public health efforts. Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for disease, injury, and social harm, responsible for millions of deaths each year. The World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly called for stronger regulations to reduce alcohol marketing, yet deals like this actively undermine such efforts.
If the Olympics were truly committed to promoting health, well-being, and positive role modeling, they would reject sponsorship deals from alcohol corporations. Instead, by partnering with AB InBev, the IOC is giving legitimacy to an industry that profits from harm, much like tobacco companies.
Promotion, or any marketing strategies, is Big Alcohol’s activity to drive alcohol availability and acceptability, to perpetuate the alcohol norm, and to place alcohol at the center of people’s thoughts and preferences, communities’ practices, and societies’ customs. The focus of this DUBIOUS FIVE strategy is the people and their beliefs about alcohol products, the public and their attitudes about and behavior around alcohol products, and the consumers and how much, how often they buy and consume alcohol brands.
Source:
https://sportsmintmedia.com/ab-inbev-to-pour-cheers-through-2032-olympics-games/