Negative reactions to Friday night's Olympic 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. (To be fair, however, the laser show at the end and Celine Deon's performance were quality highlights.)
What even was this?
House Speaker Mike Johnson Disgusted at 'Shocking and Insulting' Olympics Opener
One company isn't taking it 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
It will be interesting to see if 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.
I will spare you any photos of "Naked Blue Man."
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
— Marion Maréchal (@MarionMarechal) July 26, 2024
À tous les chrétiens du monde… pic.twitter.com/GusP2TR63u
The organizers have denied that they were trying to mock Christianity or "The Last Supper," but that hasn't calmed the furor.
The #BoycottOlympics tag is seeing a lot of action on X, with many of the reactions too heated to post here. 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
I wrote earlier Saturday about how I was watching the Super Bowl with my seven-year-old in 2004 when Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake decided it was a great time to get raunchy. 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. My first instinct is to say no—people will forget and start focusing on the actual competitions, and the kinds of people who thought up this garbage in the first place will keep attempting to shove it down our throats.
However, I've been wrong before—and I'm glad of it—because I thought the Bud Light/Dylan Mulvaney fiasco would quickly fade from the headlines, yet the company lost billions as its betrayed customers let their voices be heard.
Could we be in for a repeat?
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