Mark Ronson and his 5-Olympic athlete posse.

The idea of recording soundscapes of athletes and their sport is an ingenious idea towards creating a back-beat for a marketing campaign, and Grammy award-winner Mark Ronson, along with Katy B as vocalist are doing just that as part of Coca-Cola’s latest campaign to make the London Olympics 2012 relevant to a younger generation.

Called the “Move to the Beat” campaign, Coke is sinking mega-dollars into this, including a 60-minute documentary of Ronson cruising the globe filming the athletes in the campaign, and then the various roll-outs from commercials to YouTube flicks, mobile apps, in-store demos, and more, which the IOC hopes their key sponsor will help to create relevant hype for youth culture.

While for the first time in years, we give props to the Olympics for trying to be relevant (via music), it all still comes back down to the sports in the Games. The five athletes chosen -while all good looking, on first interview, very nice, and obviously talented -come from 5 sports that are barely, if at all, on the radar of top sports youth culture in North America, Europe, and Japan (China being the exception when it comes to table tennis) want to even learn, according to our Global Youth Culture Studies since 2000.

The athletes recorded include:
Darius Knight, 21, table tennis player from Great Britain
David Oliver, 29, 110m hurdler from the United States
Kenya Dvina, 24, 400m sprinter from Russia
Dayan Jaffa, 17, archer from Singapore
Maria Espinoza, 23, taekwondo athlete from Mexico

According to Shay Doran, Senior Vice President of Sparkling Beverages at the Coca-Cola Company, “The number one passion point for teens is music.”

Hello!

“Through Move to the Beat, Coca-Cola is inspiring teens around the world to move to the beat of London and come together in the biggest Olympic Games activation in our 84-year partnership.”

Now, if there were skateboarding sounds of decks hitting rails, botched landings, kick-flips (along with the athletes’ expressions at pulling off a trick), or the sound of surfers and waves, or the sound of BMX riders spinning their front wheel before a tough landing, sounds of freestyle moto on impact, then that may be intriguing in an international Olympic advertising campaign utilizing the music of sports towards engage a new younger audience.

But archery? Sprinting? At least table tennis has some rhythm.

The final most obvious point that may have been overlooked by the Olympics: Coke is a sugary, fatty, soft drink. An ironic choice for the world’s best athletes representing an attempt to engage a healthy lifestyle and the spirit of the Olympics to young people.