Monday, February 2, 2015

Is a McDonald's Ad Really That Serious?


During the Superbowl last night, millions of Americans got to see McDonald's latest attempt to recover from a very rocky PR atmosphere lately. Over the past few years, in light of Americans becoming more health-conscious and seeking more information behind the foods they eat, McDonald's has been under fire for serving what would be considered a deep fried, more acceptable form of dog food to the masses. Partner that with the protests last year for raising the minimum wage at fast food restaurants and it's safe to say that none of us idolize the advertisers that have to sit and come up with a way to paint their products in a positive light.

In the ad, McDonald's requested customers at random to commit public acts of affection. The result being that their meal is free in return. The prices were deeds such as "One big family hug" or as they requested one patron, "Dial up your mom, tell her that you love her."

The next day I get on my Facebook feed and I see this beaming blog from Gawker, where author Hamilton Nolan saw fit to tear apart McDonald's recent PR campaign. Hamilton said that "normal, presumably middle or lower class Americans seeking cheap food are made to grovel and put their most tender family dynamics on public display." From this phrase alone I can tell that Hamilton is both not lower to middle class and also must hate his family. After all, if you're going to attack a company for simply asking you to tell your mother that you love her as payment, there are much deeper issues in your family tree than what is for dinner. If you feel the need to go one step further and completely disparage that company for daring to ever ask someone to hug another person for money, I assume you must have been molested by Ronald McDonald.

I get it. In this political world where everyone needs to take a side, your blog has clearly chosen the liberal path that exists to try and make waves out of nonsensical issues. At least I'll have the decency to admit that I do it because I'm an asshole who writes about whatever he wants. I have no boss or higher authority who tells me to feel a certain way about social topics. For that reason, I've decided to unlike Gawker so I don't have to listen to their one-sided ramblings any longer.


I am not defending McDonald's because I believe they are a moral or innocent company by any means. They probably should raise their minimum wage some and it wouldn't hurt if they looked into changing their food. You see, this isn't conservative vs. liberal, I'm just a think-for-myself kinda guy. I wish the internet were full of more of the same.

Shots fired.

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