I find the new McDonald’s Big Mac campaign disturbing

April 25th, 2007

Synopsis: young male protagonist is made up of many tiny people who run his body. While out and about, protagonist (and the small people within him) sees a Big Mac advertisement and the ‘tiny people’ send a message via the brain down to the heart and mouth. The heart (and the tiny people pumping it) start to beat faster and the people in the mouth begin to clean the tongue in anticipation for the Big Mac.

Meanwhile the brain is tiny [looks like a small grain of wheat] and the memo from the eyes to the heart and mouth flow in and out of it very ’smoothly’. Implicit message - don’t think; if you want it, eat it.

So why do I find it disturbing?

The main message of the advertisement is that the protagonist’s body wants a McDonald’s Son of Mac. The tagline “Just for love.” solidifies this message explicitly. However, your eyes, mouth, heart and brain DO NOT you to food that is fatty (25g/serve), energy rich (2000kJ/serve) and nutritionally neutral - all figures are relevant for the Big Mac and were obtained from mcdonalds.com.au.

So the next time you hear:

McDonald’s. Just for Love.

Think:

McDonald’s. Not for Life.

I’m not saying that people shouldn’t eat McDonald’s, and a small Big Mac is obviously better for you than the original one, but saying that your body [or the tiny people within it] wants you to eat this food is utterly disturbing.

Tags: Television Advertising