By: Billy BeerSlugger
What’s up with McDonald’s commercials getting geared increasingly and increasingly more toward the minorities over the last 10 years or so. When I was i kid you had Ronald McDonald trying to keep the Hamburgalar (Rabble Rabble) from stealing all the food or Jordan and Bird throwing up unmakable shots or it was all about what the new toy was in the Happy Meal. McDonald’s was marketed towards kids who in turn bugged their parents to buy them McDonalds.
Now, i guess in a major swing of target audiences, McDonald’s it seems is seeking to lure in the African American community especially (which in turn brings the white kids as well since they want to be black). Even their current slogan, “I’m lovin’ it” leaves off the g in loving to evoke a more ethnic tone.
Some of the commercials are just taking on very stereotypical racist themes like the one with the R&B singer, his girlfriend and the 10 piece fired chicken nuggets she won’t share, “Girl ya got a 10 piece please don’t be stingy”. It’s got all the elements there, black people, fried chicken and R&B. Though McDonald’s must run these ad’s through dozens of focus groups to make sure it’s too funny and disarming for you to realize.
Then you have the little kid doing the Cha Cha Slide at the dinner table. Parents are dressed well, like the Huxtibles and the kid comes in wearing 80’s rap fashions and dancing etc. Eventually his gets his dad into it. If I came to the dinner table with a boom box my dad would have slapped me so hard in the back of the head even my little brother would have felt sorry for me. And what’s up with those apple bites? Any apple I’ve ever seen that gets sliced eventually the flesh turns brown even if you put them in a bag. Another ecological marvel engineered by those kooky scientists at Hamburger University. Is Ronald McDonald shitting out Magic Apples that don’t go bad?
Seriously though, I would have liked to been in the room when McDonald’s executives decided, “Yea were going to target the African American community with our ad’s now and leave the kids alone. Demographics show we can increase profits in urban areas by……” I would also like to see some data in terms of Race consumption of McDonald’s from when they shifted the advertising until now. I bet there’s huge increases year by year.
Then last year during the Olympics i see a commercial for the Southern Style Chicken Biscuit. The commercial has a bunch of athletic people of many races (if you notice some have British accents so you know the product must be good). Basically McDonald’s is telling you if you eat a fried chicken biscuit in the morning you can be an Olympic athlete too. That’s what Olympians eat.
All in all if I were an African American I’d be pissed in so many ways because in essence what the shift in focus of McDonald’s advertising is telling me is that they think black people are more gullible than children. Why would they have changed their advertising strategy? Does McDonald’s make more money off of minorities than it ever could have off of children and on top of that not have to bribe them with a happy meal toy?
That’s just how I see it…..