Seems kinda surprising to me that McDonald's is running it.
Is McDonald's worldwide all part of the same franchising corporation? If so, and if there is an international advertising board, perhaps we will start seeing similar commercials in areas of the US? Somehow I don't see that. (But it would be nice if they did.)
Posts: 293 | Registered: Apr 2000
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Might as well export puritan guilt along with the saturated fat and salt. Come to McDonalds, the place to enjoy hetero-normative pressure from your father. It's sort of heart warming, but mostly just sad.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Maybe it is part of a series and in a later one, the dad will take the kid and his bf out to McD. I think that would be a better all inclusive ad- whatever your family looks like, you can eat at McD.
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I wonder if they're promising to intervene when the father starts shouting that he doesn't have a son...
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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I felt the commercial was good in an awkward and realistic way.
I took it as "During this last year at school I learned (or became certain) that I am gay, and I have found my first love. Dad has just picked me up from school and we are on the way home. We stopped here at McDonald's and while dad is going to order I gave my boyfriend a quick call. Now my dad is looking at my class photo and commenting, and....oh my.... this is awkward....he doesn't know about my boyfriend yet and I haven't thought about exactly how to tell him."
-->sidenote: (I do not believe many people carry around class photos, thus the reason to conclude they are en route home from some private all-boys boarding school.)
Also, from the son's face, I didn't feel it portrayed fear of discovery. It felt more to me like "oh dad, you don't realize that you are clueless on this one" in almost an affectionate way.
I didn't read the "come as you are" message as implying a contrast to the son's long-term hiding in the closet. I took it the opposite way that McDonald's was a place for him to come out and be himself. I imagined he was coming out to his dad in the moments after the scene portrayed in the commercial.
Maybe I read too much into it? Rose colored glasses sometimes.
Posts: 293 | Registered: Apr 2000
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McDonald's is happy to serve demure, at least partially-closeted gay people? Yeah, no kidding. So is Chick-fil-A (which partners sometimes with Focus on the Family)*. This is nothing at all noteworthy. It's fine, don't get me wrong, it's just not brave or humanistic or anything at all other than a particular angle on the basic profit motive of any business.
Does McDonald's food or business model have any particular relevance to gay rights or gay interests? I can't think of any.
You can bet that McDonald's market analysis determined that in the target market, they expected to get less backlash from anti-gay demographic groups than they expected to earn goodwill with this ad.
So to me, the ad comes off as a cynical attempt to exploit gay interests for profit, rather than any kind of sincere attempt to lend support to the gay rights community.
Almost every company's advertising tries to make you feel good for the sole purpose of making more money. This aspect is nothing particularly worth comment.
But when a company so blatantly ignores selling their product and instead tries to sell their sensitivity, but does it in such a bland and cautious manner (making it clear they haven't stopped thinking about the bottom line), it goes a bit beyond the usual pop psych hubris of advertising, IMO.
*Sorry, I am conscious of how I moved the context to America for the comparison. It's just that I don't know the comparable French company. :/
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Might as well export puritan guilt along with the saturated fat and salt. Come to McDonalds, the place to enjoy hetero-normative pressure from your father. It's sort of heart warming, but mostly just sad.
I don't see it that way. The young man seems more amused by his fathers assumption than ashamed of himself.
Posts: 305 | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: Might as well export puritan guilt along with the saturated fat and salt. Come to McDonalds, the place to enjoy hetero-normative pressure from your father. It's sort of heart warming, but mostly just sad.
I don't see it that way. The young man seems more amused by his fathers assumption than ashamed of himself.
That's actually how I saw it too. Didn't make it less awkward, or useless in a sense, but that's how I took it.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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