Molson pays Olympic athletes via their parents: 'Paid Through Parents' (Paris 2024)

The Olympic Games generate $13 billion in revenue for the IOC, celebrities and advertisers, yet many athletes who compete carry debt and take extra jobs — partly because strict IOC rules stop brands from sponsoring them. As official sponsor of Team Canada for Paris 2024, Molson Coors wanted to get its athletes paid, but the rules made a direct deal impossible. Rethink's answer, launched as 'Sponsor The Parents', was a loophole hiding in plain sight: the rules say nothing about the athletes' parents.

Molson signed nine moms and dads of Team Canada athletes to genuine, paid endorsement contracts — contract signings, a starring role in a hero online video whose mysterious tracksuited figures are revealed to be the parents, Molson-branded gear, social content documenting their trip to Paris, media interviews, and hometown OOH in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal alongside connected TV on CBC Gem. Because the deals were with the parents, the sponsorship money — $15,000 per athlete — legally reached the competitors through their families.

The brand's submitted results call the campaign its most successful Olympic effort ever: 389.2 million impressions across media, connected TV and OOH, over 19 million impressions on owned channels, 100% positive sentiment, and a 15,000% increase in what its athletes were paid compared with past Olympics. High-profile athletes including Larissa Franklin, Tyler Mislawchuk and Hannah Taylor publicly engaged with the work, and the campaign's central claim — real money, not a gesture — was what made the idea spread.

Paid Through Parents went on to collect industry recognition through 2025: Silver and Bronze in the Entertainment Lions for Sport at Cannes Lions, a D&AD Pencil, Gold in Creative Strategy at the London International Awards, and Silver at Canada's 2025 Atomica Awards.