A brief history of creepy McDonald's commercials
On Sunday night, beleaguered fast food behemoth McDonald’s debuted an unusual ad. Using signs from various franchise locations, the spot alludes to things like 9/11 and the Boston Marathon in apparent effort to make the chain look compassionate and caring.
The commercial appears to be part of a larger effort by McDonald’s to seem generally nicer: it has also swapped out its self-centered “I’m Lovin’ It” tagline for the more magnanimous “Lovin’ Is Greater Than Hating.” According to the Associated Press, McDonald’s chief marketing officer said that the ad was designed to show the company’s involvement in local communities during joyful and tragic occasions.
and so on.
Indeed, McDonald’s marketing officer said the outsized response was surprising: “Did we expect all this? No.”
But this isn’t the first time that McDonald’s has tried to win our hearts and our wallets with emotional ads. Here are some of Mickey D’s other manipulative attempts to get us to buy some burgers and fries:
“Do The Arches,” 1988