Insulting Advertising from McDonald's

Recently we, the viewing public, have been assaulted by a series of ridiculously ignorant commercials by one of the most powerful names in fast food: McDonald's. Their "I'm lovin' it" campaign has been running for a couple of years now, but only recently has it raised my hackles to the point of complaining about it to my patient wife. Their latest set of uninspired, 30 second coma-inducing rubbish piles has people making poor decisions because they didn't eat a snack; a "snack" evidently consisting of a piece of cheese-covered, deep fried chicken wrapped in a soft taco. My argument is not with the pseudo-healthy food they're pushing, but with the insulting commercials their overpaid advertising and marketing firms creates in the attempt to sell it.

Example: Julie is quietly talking to her office gal-pals about a guy who works in the office with them. Julie is excited because the guy asked her out. Her friends look over at the guy, who admittedly is no Adonis, but he is not made out to be creepy or freakish, and they roll their collective eyes saying, "Looks like somebody missed their snack time". The voiceover starts talking about people "losing their sense" when they don't eat. The end of the commercial has Julie eating some deep fried McGarbage, looking at the guy with disdain proclaiming something like, "I must have been REALLY hungry," then walking away as he watches her with a sad expression.

Another example: Four or five guys are sitting in a slack-jawed trance in front of the TV, playing video games. One of them drops his controller, says he's had it and he wants to take his girlfriend to see a romantic movie and leaves the house. This is when his buddy starts talking about missing snack time. We'll all just assume that he's lost his senses because he'd rather spend some quality time with his girlfriend than remain in a game-induced stupor with his brain-dead buddies. What is McDonald's trying to say?

I hate McDonalds. I have hated them since the early nineties when I found out what part they play in the destruction of the Brazilian rain forests. It turns out they buy (or at least used to buy) a good amount of the meat for their burgers from the same Brazilian farmers who cut down the trees in order to make room for cattle to graze. The same cattle used in Big Macs and Quarter Pounders. While I cannot deny that their fries were the best (before they stopped using the really, really bad oil), I refused to eat there again after I found out. Burger King, Wendy's - I can't speak for all of the burger joints and where they get their meat, but when you consider that in one year McDonald's spend more in advertising than Wendy's grosses altogether, you can see why McDonald's is at the center of my ire.

However, even from the depths of evil can come goodness. Assumably to help with image and tax relief, McDonald's DID create the Ronald McDonald House Charities which has helped millions of families since its inception. The idea is that sometimes family accommodations can be hard to find when children need medical treatment. The Ronald McDonald House gives families a "home away from home" when they can't find or afford a place to stay. The RMH Charities have also developed Ronald McDonald Mobile Care which provides wellness checks, immunizations, counseling and education. It's hard to hate an entity that helps people, even if their reasons aren't up-front. Kind of like Microsoft. And the U.S. Government.

In closing, I still hate McDonalds. I hate them for their meat procurement techniques, for their mind-numbing commercials and for the fact that they stopped using that really, really bad oil to cook their fries. But mostly for the commercials and the cattle fiasco - Burger King has pretty good fries...