Tobacco companies advertised alongside the Games beginning in the 1920s.
Image courtesy of Reddit/hotbowlofjustice
Claim:
Marathon-brand cigarettes were the “official cigarette of the 1984 Olympics.”
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.
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 …