As the 2024 Paris Olympics began, online rumors surrounding the Games circulated on social media, including the claim a brand of cigarettes called Marathon authentically aired a TV advertisement stating they were the "official cigarette of the 1984 Olympics."
The rumor dated back to at least 2021, when a photo of the purported 1984 commercial was shared to 9GAG and Imgur . The image was again posted on Reddit and Instagram in 2022.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZkNA7zK4ZI/
However, Shirley Ito — a librarian at the LA84 Foundation , an organization that hosts the archives from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics — confirmed to Snopes that neither Marathon nor any other cigarette brand were included in a list of the 1984 Olympics' official sponsors, suppliers and licensees, which can be found in the 1984 Official Report .
Therefore, we rated this claim as "False."
Snopes also investigated the provenance of the advertisement, but we were unable to determine whether it was authentic or where it aired.
Tobacco Companies and the Olympics
Many companies, including those that sold tobacco products, have often associated themselves with the Olympic Games for advertising purposes. Snopes found tobacco companies have a long history of being connected with the Olympic Games, and sponsored content from companies like Camel did appear in the 1984 Olympics.
However, Dr. Robert Jackler — the principal investigator of the Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising at the Stanford University School of Medicine, an interdisciplinary research group that analyzes the effects of tobacco advertising, including during events like the Olympics — sent Snopes historical information that confirmed the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games had "no official tobacco sponsors."
The International Olympic Committee wrote that, in total, 34 companies "made financial and value-in-kind" contributions to the 1984 Games — none of which were cigarette companies. Even so, "tobacco companies still maintained a connection to the Games through advertising channels," according to an unpublished study Jackler sent Snopes, which examined the relationship between the tobacco industry and the Olympic Games.
Several cigarette brands hosted advertising campaigns relevant to the 1984 Olympics, according to information Jackler sent us. Although a brand called Marathon was not on the list, cigarettes made by Camel, Lucky Strike, Carlton, Merit and Salem were.
For example, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company developed a Camel Olympic Scoreboard , printed in the Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated, "to further associate the Brand with sports."
(SRITA)
Similarly, the American Tobacco Company launched an Olympic Sweepstakes Program for Lucky Strike cigarettes , with the grand prize being an all-expenses-paid trip to that year's Games. To qualify for the draw, consumers had to buy all three styles of Lucky Strike Filters. The Sweepstakes Program was advertised in popular U.S. magazines, such as Time, Sports Illustrated, TV Guide and Newsweek.
(SRITA)
SRITA wrote that tobacco advertisements first appeared in the Olympic Games in 1920, often being placed in official programs or featuring Olympic athletes in ads. Many of these promoted the idea that cigarettes allowed athletes to lead healthy lives. Cigarette advertising in the Olympic Games reached its peak in the 1970s and '80s, but soon fell out of favor as the health consequences of smoking became more well-known.
On April 7, 1984, The Associated Press published an interview with Dan Greenwood, then-vice president of sponsorships for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. The article highlighted a change in Olympic exclusive sponsorships given to certain products authorized to "carry the five-ringed Olympic symbol on their products." The publication listed numerous companies the Games were sponsored by, none of which were tobacco companies (although it did not provide a definitive list). The cigarette advertisements Snopes previously referenced above, for example, did not include the official Olympic logo.
Secondly, Greenwood commented on the brands he had been ridiculed for partnering with, such as M&Ms, but he didn't mention criticism for teaming up with any tobacco company, which likely would have been the case should such a company have been an official sponsor of the 1984 Olympics.
Tobacco companies maintained relationships with the Games until the Canadian National Olympic Committee banned tobacco marketing in the 1988 Winter Olympics, citing the necessity of a smoke-free environment. But in the decades since, cigarette companies have persisted. In 1996, for instance, tobacco marketing was still present at the Atlanta Games. In 2008, organizers of the Beijing Games received pushback after attempting to ban cigarettes from the Games, and it wasn't until 2020 that Japan implemented its tobacco ban when it hosted the Olympics.
Marathon Advertisement's Provenance
Snopes was unable to determine the authenticity of the Marathon ad; however, cigarette companies were banned from broadcast advertising in the United States in 1971, well before the 1984 Olympics. Therefore, the commercial would have been illegal to air in the U.S. in 1984, which suggested the advert was not real and thus weakened the claim Marathon produced the "official cigarette" of the Games that year.
In trying to establish the advertisement's provenance, we found evidence it may have appeared in the satirical sketch comedy series "Not Necessarily the News," which aired from 1983 to 1990.
The show featured commercials for fake, joke products sponsoring the Olympics, like this one (from 20:31 of the episode titled: "1984-07 Olympics"), which showed multiple satirical products, or this one (from 2:07), which finished (at 3:25 ) with a catchphrase that also featured in the above Instagram post — "Let's Win the Games Again."
Despite looking through multiple episodes and finding many, similar advertisements for joke products, we did not see a satirical ad for Marathon cigarettes. However, we will update this article if we find such a commercial at a later date.
Marathon-brand Cigarettes Did Once Exist
Snopes did find evidence Marathon-brand cigarettes once existed. For example, online newspaper archive Newspapers.com listed two advertisements for Marathon-brand cigarettes in March and July 2003 editions of local Ohio newspaper Dayton Daily News.
Elsewhere, Marathon-brand cigarettes were for sale on what appeared to be a Chinese online cigarette store called CigarettesCigs.com . The website had multiple Marathon products on sale as of this writing. They were also once on sale on what appeared to be a U.S. online cigarette store named CigOutlet.net ; however, they had been discontinued.
Likewise, another website claimed Marathon cigarettes were sold in Cyprus and Greece. This website also showed numerous supposed Marathon products as of this writing.
Snopes previously looked into other online claims related to tobacco products, including this real vintage advertisement for Camels featuring a doctor and the slogan : "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette." We've also looked into whether a brand of cigarettes in the 1950s, Kent cigarettes, used extremely toxic asbestos in their filters.
Sources:
'20 Mar 2003, Page 73 - Dayton Daily News at Newspapers.Com'. Newspapers.Com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/410472623/. Accessed 31 July 2024. '24 Jul 2003, Page 64 - Dayton Daily News at Newspapers.Com'. Newspapers.Com, https://www.newspapers.com/image/410416529/. Accessed 31 July 2024. About Us Title . https://www.cigarettescigs.com/about-us-ezp-12.html. Accessed 30 July 2024. Branigan, Tania. "False Start for Beijing's Olympic Anti-Smoking Law." The Guardian , 14 Apr. 2008. The Guardian , https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/14/olympicgames2008.china2. CONTENTdm . https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll8. Accessed 17 July 2024. Imgur. "." Imgur , https://imgur.com/gallery/aW5q2Yz. Accessed 17 July 2024. Industry Documents Library . https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/#id=hpdk0096. Accessed 17 July 2024. --- . https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/#id=lswj0144. Accessed 17 July 2024. Instagram . https://www.instagram.com/p/CZkNA7zK4ZI/?utm_medium=share_sheet. Accessed 17 July 2024. IOC. "Los Angeles 1984 Summer Olympics - Athletes, Medals & Results." Olympics.Com , 24 Apr. 2018, https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/los-angeles-1984. Kasprak, Alex. "Did Cigarettes Ever Contain Asbestos Filters?" Snopes , 18 Jan. 2023, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/kent-cigarettes-asbestos-filters/. Lee, Kelley, et al. "Smoke Rings: Towards a Comprehensive Tobacco Free Policy for the Olympic Games." PLOS ONE , edited by Natalie Walker, vol. 10, no. 8, Aug. 2015, p. e0130091. DOI.org (Crossref) , https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0130091. "Los Angeles 1984: An Influential Legacy - Olympic News." Olympics.Com , 6 Nov. 2019, https://olympics.com/ioc/news/los-angeles-1984-an-influential-legacy. Marathon 100s Exclusive Premium Blend Cigarettes 10 cartons|Marathon 100s Exclusive Premium|Marathon Cigarettes . https://www.cigarettescigs.com/marathon-cigarettes-marathon-100s-exclusive-premium-blend-cigarettes-10-cartons-p-3321.html. Accessed 30 July 2024. Marathon Lights 100s Exclusive Premium Blend Soft Box cigarettes|Marathon Lights 100s Exclusive P|Marathon Cigarettes . https://www.cigarettescigs.com/marathon-cigarettes-marathon-lights-100s-exclusive-premium-blend-soft-box-cigarettes-p-3325.html. Accessed 30 July 2024. Marathon Menthol Lights Exclusive Premium Blend cigarettes|Marathon Menthol Lights Exclusiv|Marathon Cigarettes . https://www.cigarettescigs.com/marathon-cigarettes-marathon-menthol-lights-exclusive-premium-blend-cigarettes-p-3332.html. Accessed 30 July 2024. Official Report 1984 v.1 Page 1 . https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll8/id/39639/rec/51. Accessed 17 July 2024. Rathbone, Chris. "2020 Olympics' Legacy for Tobacco Control in Japan." Tobacco Induced Diseases , vol. 17, no. 1, Oct. 2019. www.tobaccoinduceddiseases.org , https://doi.org/10.18332/tid/111611. "Robert K. Jackler, MD | Stanford Medicine." CAP Profiles , https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/robert-jackler. Accessed 17 July 2024. "Staff." LA84 Foundation , https://la84.org/tbuilder-layout-part/staff/. Accessed 17 July 2024. Taketa, Rachel. Tobacco Industry Sponsorship of the Olympics: A Dive into the UCSF Truth Tobacco Industry Documents | Brought to Light . 8 Jan. 2018, https://broughttolight.ucsf.edu/2018/01/08/tobacco-industry-sponsorship-of-the-olympics-a-dive-into-the-ucsf-truth-tobacco-industry-documents/. "Tobacco-Free Campus." School of Medicine , https://med.stanford.edu/school/campus/tobacco-free-campus-policy.html#:~:text=Stanford%20Research%20into%20the%20Impact,tobacco%20advertising%2C%20marketing%20and%20promotion. Accessed 17 July 2024. "---." School of Medicine , https://med.stanford.edu/school/campus/tobacco-free-campus-policy.html#:~:text=Stanford%20Research%20into%20the%20Impact,tobacco%20advertising%2C%20marketing%20and%20promotion. Accessed 17 July 2024. Wrona, Aleksandra. "Real 'More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette' Vintage Ad?" Snopes , 7 Apr. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/doctors-smoke-camels-ad/. https://joinus.la84.org/. Accessed 17 July 2024.
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