Advertising: Sending the Wrong Message …
By Kris | September 11th, 2008 No Comments »I have some issues with McDonald’s in general, let me make that clear from the onset. But, that aside, during the Olympics this year in Beijing, there were a number of McDonald’s ads that just didn’t match up to the overall feeling of the games.
What I mean by this is the games are all about competition — good competition, fostering positive relationships between countries and promoting goodwill for the world over. Well, in my opinion, McDonald’s corporation fell short from the mark on a number of fronts.
In particular, this ad, sent the wrong message. Again, we’re talking about being good sports and promoting sports as a great way to spend time and as a character builder. For me, sports kept me out of trouble, kept me healthy and created lifelong friendships.
Clearly this ad is not about that at all. The ad shows a group of young kids lose a soccer game, the victors openly mocking them, parents and coaches are all in the fray when all of a sudden, the losing team gets McDonald’s Happy Meals and all of a sudden the trophy gets dropped and the winning team is down and out.
Really??!! Is that the message we want to send to our kids? My son is competitive enough, this certainly isn’t what I want my kids to do and would rather not be on a team with the same mentality.
Here’s the ad, what’re your thoughts?
