Depending on how you look at it, this General Mills promotion is either the ultimate milking of the Olympics sponsorship dream, or it's the absolute proof of the sheer marketing scope of Olympic-ness. Or both.

Most are simply trying to snatch consumer interest. Others want to rub elbows with their best customers. Some hope to boost employee morale. Each factor reflects on a company's overall image. But with the Games on U.S. soil for the first time since 1984, that patriotic imagery comes at a record-shattering price. Nearly 180 companies and brands from Coca-Cola to McDonald's will spend $750 million for the rights to call themselves Olympic sponsors.

Some titans like Coca-Cola and McDonald's have no choice but to be sponsors. If they didn't, rivals Pepsi and Burger King surely would wrap themselves in Olympic rings. Others, such as UPS and IBM, are desperately trying to bolster their images on a global scale. By the end of the Summer Games, all that each of the sponsors wants is to walk away with an Olympic glow. An image so enwrapped in the Games' winners that the world can't help but link the two. But only a handful of sponsors will be so lucky. The rest will get lost in the commercial shuffle. They'll walk away with little more than a very expensive lesson.