The Olympic Games did not have their first corporate sponsor until

The Olympic Games did not have their first corporate sponsor until 1928, when the games in Amsterdam were supported by Coca-Cola, the soft drink company, which is also credited with having popularized the modern image of Santa Claus and having pioneered the use of product placement in movies.

A. which is also credited with having popularized the modern image of Santa Claus and having pioneered the use of product placement -Correct
B. which, while popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus, pioneered the use of product placement -Changes the meaning. Coca cola did 2 things: popularise and pioneer. While this option states that coca cola popularised Santa and at the same time pioneered the use of PP
C. which, after being credited with popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus, pioneered the use of product placement -Same as B
D. which is also credited with popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus, pioneering the use of product placement -"and" is required before pioneering
E. popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus and pioneering the use of product placement -This changes the meaning. It means that Coca cola supported Amsterdam games while at the same time popularised Santa and pioneered the use of PP

as per the regular qn meaning, cocacola sponsored x and cocacola is also a and b
so out of all options B,C,D,E ,every options presents either cause and effect relationship or a how aspect of the meaning, whereas no such hint being provided in the qn statment or can be inferred from the meaning of such relation ship.so without doubt I go for A .

Sources are comma+ing modifier and its rules.its a meaning based approach.

GMATNinja VeritasKarishma Please explain this one. I chose option E, need clarification on why its wrong

Hey I am no expert like the guys you've mentioned but sharing my 2 cents here while you wait for their reply -

If you read the sentence literally, it is saying that the fact that "the games in Amsterdam were supported by Coca-Cola, the soft drink company" popularized the modern of image of santa claus and movies etc. I am not sure if there is a grammar issue here, but this definitely changes the meaning of the sentence. A meaning that does not make a lot of sense. How can "Games being supported by Coca cola" pioneer something let alone pioneering the use of santas, product placements, etc. It makes no logical sense.

A. which is also credited with having popularized the modern image of Santa Claus and having pioneered the use of product placement -- "credited with having X and having Y". Parallelism is intact. Relative pronoun "which" refers back to Coca cola and not "soft drink company"

B. which, while popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus, pioneered the use of product placement -- "while" is used to denote two parallel actions. This is completely wrong here since the "pioneering" came after the "popularising of Santa clause image". Eliminate

C. which, after being credited with popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus, pioneered the use of product placement -- Eliminate. 1. Incorrect use of being. 2. We don't need to put "popularising" phrase into a non-restrictive modifier or non-essential modifier.

D. which is also credited with popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus, pioneering the use of product placement -- Eliminate. Broken parallelism. "which is credited with X, pioneering the use". "pioneering the use" is parallel to "credited with X". The structure here implies a causal relationship which isn't true.

E. popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus and pioneering the use of product placement -- "we need a relative pronoun here to refer back to "Coca-Cola". Right now, this is making a general statement about "soft drink company" which isn't the intended meaning.

Comma + verb-ing modifier at the end of a clause modifies the entire previous clause. It could be the result/effect of the action of the previous clause.


(E) The Olympic Games did not have their first corporate sponsor until 1928, when the games in Amsterdam were supported by Coca-Cola, the soft drink company, popularizing the modern image of Santa Claus and pioneering the use of product placement

The clause before "popularising" is "when the games in Amsterdam were supported by Coca-Cola"
This implies that Coco Cola popularised the current image of Santa Clause by supporting the games in Amsterdam. This is illogical.

The point of the sentence is that Coca-Cola was the first one to sponsor Olympic games. It is also credited with popularising the modern image of Santa Claus and with pioneering the use of product placement in movies.
These are three different things that it is credited with.

Thanks for your explanation Karishma.
I also have a query regarding the correct option A. I am not sure about the use of "having", it seemed unnecessary. What difference would it make if we removed "having" and wrote the answer as you also mentioned in your reply - "The Olympic Games did not have their first corporate sponsor until 1928, when the games in Amsterdam were supported by Coca-Cola, the soft drink company, which is also credited with popularising the modern image of Santa Claus and with pioneering the use of product placement in movies." If we had an option between this sentence and the one with "having" which one would be correct and why

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