UK survey: Majority of social media mentions about Olympic Sponsors criticise Russian anti-gay laws

According to a recent social media review, a vast majority of UK talk about Olympic Sponsors Coca-Cola, Visa, and McDonald’s has focused exclusively on their failure to address anti-gay laws in Russia.

In the We Are Social survey published on Thursday, it was found that 81% of Coca-Cola’s social mentions referred to the brand’s refusal to address concerns over Russia’s anti-gay stance.

This comes after the brand also recently banned the word “gay” from one of its social media campaigns, stirring up a great deal of controversy among gay rights charities.

Only 2% of Coca-Cola mentions were positive in total, with another 2% making up criticisms of links to obesity.

Similar criticism were also made against Visa, with 77% of mentions linked to anti-gay laws in the host country.

For McDonald’s, 88% of mentions were made about gay issues, while 10% were critical of obesity concerns.

Last month, the company’s hashtag #CheersToSochi was hijacked with backlash from LGBT activists.

The three companies were the most talked-about Olympic sponsors in the UK, specifically mentioning their association with the Winter Games.

• Dec 01 2023

16 TV stars you grew up watching who later came out as LGBTQ+