'Stars Align' Is a Horoscope, Not an Olympic Slogan. LA28 Should Scrap It.

LA28's marketing chief insists 'Stars Align' isn't about luck, a disclaimer no Olympic slogan should need on its first day.

A good slogan doesn't come with instructions. LA28's new one came with a disclaimer on its first day, and that's reason enough to send it back.

The committee organizing the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games announced Wednesday that "Stars Align" is its official slogan, with 625 days left before the Games, USA TODAY Sports reported. Then came the footnote. "'Stars Align' to us, is not based on luck. It's grounded in effort and commitment," LA28 chief marketing officer Alex Merchán said, according to Yahoo Sports.

I'd scrap it, and the footnote is why. "The stars aligned" is what people say when something went right that nobody planned. It's horoscope talk. It sounds like a dating app's tagline for two strangers who swiped at the same second.

An Olympics is supposed to be the one event where luck is the thing everybody spent years trying to take out of the equation. A slogan for it shouldn't need its own marketing chief to argue it out of its plain meaning.

The committee seems to know that, because the explanation keeps getting longer. Merchán's fuller case, texted to USA TODAY Sports by way of a spokesperson, was that "stars have always represented hope, possibility and the belief that something extraordinary can happen." He tied the phrase to Hollywood, to 50 stars for the 50 states he says the torch relay will reach for the first time, and to the emblem of the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

That last one is the best case for the slogan, and it's also the best case against it. In 1984, Los Angeles named its Olympic emblem for movement: "Stars in Motion," with red, white and blue stars stacked over 13 stripes. Forty-two years later, LA28 has the same stars parked in a row, waiting to line up.

Yes, it's a pun, with Hollywood's stars and the athletes meeting in one city. Merchán made exactly that pitch, telling USA TODAY that "the most important stars are the athletes, fans and communities," and Yahoo Sports reported he said the slogan is meant to reach beyond the estimated 15,000 athletes to workers, volunteers and small businesses in LA28's Local Authentic vendor program. That's a generous idea. It's also a lot of explaining for two words, and a stranger hears the two words first.

Put it next to the company it'll keep. The Olympic motto, per USA TODAY, is "Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together." Every word in it is something a person does. "Stars Align" is something that happens to you while you wait.

The launch film already holds a better line. Going by Yahoo Sports' description, the 60-second spot is set to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Can't Stop" and runs past the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory. "Can't Stop" is effort. It's a sprinter's two words, and the committee licensed them as background music.

There's time to fix this. The Olympics open July 14, 2028, and the Paralympics on Aug. 15, and LA28 still has a torch relay route and a mascot to unveil before then, Yahoo Sports reported. A slogan this young shouldn't be hard to retire.

LA28 even wrote the replacement itself. "Stars Align," Merchán said, is "when preparation meets opportunity." So lead with the preparation, and leave the stars to the observatory in the video.

Source: secretlosangeles.com, retrieved October 28, 2026. Other sources: sports.yahoo.com, sports.yahoo.com (2).