meanwhile, in a secret marketing meeting...
A board room in the corporate headquarters for McDonald's fast food restaurants. At the table are a fat, old man in a bad suit and two skinny, oily figures who nervously giggle to themselves uncontrollably.
Lights up.
McDonald's Exec - Thank you for coming today. Let's get started. What has your market research shown you?
Marketing Peon 1 - Well, sir. We have made a pretty exciting discovery.
Marketing Peon 2 - (continuing) We have found an entire demographic that has gone untouched by our company for years.
Marketing Peon 1 - This group has been virtually ignored by our advertising and marketing campaigns for decades.
Marketing Peon 2 - And with the recent, um, "hits" we've taken due to popular media like "Fast Food Nation" and "Supersize Me"...
McDonald's Exec - (interupting) Those bastards!
Marketing Peon 1 - Bastards, yes sir.
Marketing Peon 2 - With those "hits," we think it's time to focus on this new group.
McDonald's Exec - I see. And what exactly is this group?
Marketing Peon 2 - Well, sir. They're called "black" people.
McDonald's Exec - "Black" people, huh? What are you proposing?
Marketing Peon 1 - Well, first we need to..."urban-ize" our slogan.
Marketing Peon 2 - We're thinking something like: "i'm lovin' it."
McDonald's Exec - Edgy. I like it.
Marketing Peon 1 - And we will follow that with a series of afro-centric commercials that are as racially stereotypical as they are annoying.
Marketing Peon 2 - People will love it, sir.
McDonald's Exec - I like what I am hearing. But, if you are right about these "black" people, we should focus ALL of our efforts on them. Apparently, we have a lot of time to make up.
Marketing Peon 1 and Marketing Peon 2 smile knowingly at each other and then look back to the executive
Both - We couldn't agree more, sir.
McDonald's Exec - Let's make this happen. It will be nice to find a new group of people to fall in love with us.
Marketing Peon 1 - Whether they want to or not?
McDonald's Exec - (smiling) Yes. Whether they want to or not.
Lights fade. America sighs. cade officially enjoys the memory of his last extra value meal....ever.
Lights up.
McDonald's Exec - Thank you for coming today. Let's get started. What has your market research shown you?
Marketing Peon 1 - Well, sir. We have made a pretty exciting discovery.
Marketing Peon 2 - (continuing) We have found an entire demographic that has gone untouched by our company for years.
Marketing Peon 1 - This group has been virtually ignored by our advertising and marketing campaigns for decades.
Marketing Peon 2 - And with the recent, um, "hits" we've taken due to popular media like "Fast Food Nation" and "Supersize Me"...
McDonald's Exec - (interupting) Those bastards!
Marketing Peon 1 - Bastards, yes sir.
Marketing Peon 2 - With those "hits," we think it's time to focus on this new group.
McDonald's Exec - I see. And what exactly is this group?
Marketing Peon 2 - Well, sir. They're called "black" people.
McDonald's Exec - "Black" people, huh? What are you proposing?
Marketing Peon 1 - Well, first we need to..."urban-ize" our slogan.
Marketing Peon 2 - We're thinking something like: "i'm lovin' it."
McDonald's Exec - Edgy. I like it.
Marketing Peon 1 - And we will follow that with a series of afro-centric commercials that are as racially stereotypical as they are annoying.
Marketing Peon 2 - People will love it, sir.
McDonald's Exec - I like what I am hearing. But, if you are right about these "black" people, we should focus ALL of our efforts on them. Apparently, we have a lot of time to make up.
Marketing Peon 1 and Marketing Peon 2 smile knowingly at each other and then look back to the executive
Both - We couldn't agree more, sir.
McDonald's Exec - Let's make this happen. It will be nice to find a new group of people to fall in love with us.
Marketing Peon 1 - Whether they want to or not?
McDonald's Exec - (smiling) Yes. Whether they want to or not.
Lights fade. America sighs. cade officially enjoys the memory of his last extra value meal....ever.
posted by cade at 7:39 PM
8 Comments:
you lie.
...that is so not your last extra value meal. but nice try.
mmm, quarter pounder with cheeeeese.
watch me.
i said the same thing about giving up mcd's a while back... but man 99 cent cheese burgers are tough to resist...
but i am cheering for ya man...
You know full well, I got your back on this one. Haven't eaten at McDonald's in something like 3 years.
Brilliant post my man, quite briliant.
Sorry guys, but I think I'm missing something. You're boycotting McD's because they sell to black people?
ali-
i am boycotting mcdonalds because they suck...as a compay and as a food source. the fact that their marketing campaign is all of the sudden targeting the african american community seems to be a little odd to me.
jyl-
this fictitious meeting of the minds took place "outside the realm of time and space." the whole movement toward the urbanizing of mcd's seems to go back to the inception of the "i'm lovin' it" campaign. it was just the beginning.
It seems to me that there is a distinction between "urban" and "black". McDonalds definately switched their target group. And who can blame them? Their mascot is a clown. a.clown. I'll let that sink in. Appealing to children? Perhaps, (though I err on the side of creepy in a Michael Jackson meets the clown from IT sort-of-way) but there's only so long that children hooked on free toys in happy meals are going to stay with you... somewhere around the time when a grown adult asks himself why he's ordering from a restaurant with a creepy clown mascot when he doesn't have children.
So McDonald took a page out of just about every other retail superpower and focussed instead on the hip, current, and ever so trendy young adult population. You know. The same people who will be walking into Hot Topic and Urban Outfitters when they're in their mid-fifties... yeah... shudder... but they realize that this generation really doesn't want to grow out of their trends. Ever wonder why you see 14 year olds AND 32 year olds you think are freshmen in college? Because this generation lives like being old is being untrendy. And trendiness is a way to hold on to youth.
So, while other aspects of McDonalds may be awful, I really can't get upset about them switching to a more racially diverse, older (yet younger) trendy crowd. They're doing the same thing everyone else does in retail. Adapt to survive. or make a profit... something like that... I'm more concerned with their masking health information instead of their target audience.
McD's now prints their nutritional info on the packages. I'm not ok with this. I like to enjoy by fries in ignorant bliss.
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