Negative reactions to Friday night’s Olympics opening ceremony continue to pour in, and at least one company has announced it is pulling its advertising, while a boycott movement has been trending on Twitter.
I personally found the show to be boring most of the time, offensive the rest, and I wondered why organizers hadn’t taken into consideration that they couldn’t control the weather.
One company is not taking this lying down, saying they were “shocked by the mockery”:
This is corporate courage. 👏👏👏 https://t.co/rZn8ZmRnKx
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) July 27, 2024
C Spire is not a behemoth, but the Mississippi-based telecommunications and technology company does have a reported market cap of over $348 million, so they’re not nobodies either.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves backed the company’s move:
I am proud to see the private sector in Mississippi step up and put their foot down. God will not be mocked. C Spire drew a common-sense, appropriate line. https://t.co/R38yJye97I
— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) July 27, 2024
Will other companies follow suit. Meanwhile, a boycott movement has gained traction on Twitter/X:
Thousands of social media users have threatened to boycott the nascent Paris Olympics after its opening ceremony was widely panned on Friday.
Enraged viewers took to X where #boycottOlympics and #boycottParis2024 were seen trending over the course of the following day.
In particular, the appearance of a ‘naked blue man’ among a scene likened to the Last Supper angered many watching, especially Christians.
Although French President Emmanuel Macron praised the ceremony, Marion Maréchal, a member of the European Parliament, tried to distance La République from the show:
To all the Christians of the world who are watching the #Paris2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation. #notinmyname
À tous les chrétiens du monde… pic.twitter.com/GusP2TR63u
— Marion Maréchal (@MarionMarechal) July 26, 2024
The #BoycottOlympics tag is seeing a lot of action on X, with many of the reactions heated. Here’s a sample of the tamer feelings displayed:
The dedicated decimation of the family unit on full display at the Olympics….
A direct diss to EVERY parent attempting to raise kids with decent values. #BoycottOlympics
Athletic events simply aren’t the place for that time of thing:
It’s probably impossible to completely divorce politics from sports, especially during international events, but there’s no reason to bring threesomes, drag queens, and mockery of Christianity into play. It seems like they went out of their way to be offensive—and they succeeded.
It remains to be seen how much the backlash affects the games and whether more advertisers pull their money from NBC.
The Bud Light/Dylan Mulvaney fiasco has proven the danger of customer betrayal with its parent company Anheuser-Busch having lost over $5 billion in market value.
Again, may betrayed customers make their voices heard.
