Extra-value deal

Basketball star Yao Ming delivers a recorded message to announce McDonald's multimillion-dollar eight-year sponsorship of the Olympic Games, including the Beijing 2008 event. McDonald's chairman Jim Cantalupo said: 'We might spend something like US$16 billion in marketing over the next eight years and the Olympics is one piece of the whole marketing programme.' Yao applauded the company's support of the Games, saying: 'McDonald's shares the Olympic spirit.'