info @ the P.Pole 04.26.07

Just one item for today's list.

1 restaurant I might actually have to eat at from time to time that I hate the most:

• McDonald's

Most people who complain and whine about McDonald's probably do it because of the "nasty food" there. Not "nasty" as in "tastes bad" or "made of fecal matter and newspapers" sense, but more in the "it'll make you fat as the Halls of Hell" sense. I personally don't take issue with their food too much. I'm not overweight, nor do I eat there a lot. I don't watch my weight or try and manage my diet too much. On top of that, I'll eat anything that won't kill me so I don't mind McDonald's for those reasons.

What I do take issue with, though, is their terrible advertising. Not really "terrible" in a "what a terrible job that was" or "she looks terrible" sense, but more of a "f*** the unfortunate" kind of way. I'm pretty sure I need to explain.

If anyone reading this has ever driven northbound on McCowan (a tiny ways after Sheppard) in the past couple months, I'm sure you've spotted the McDonald's billboard with a slogan on it. It was to promote one of their breakfast wraps and it read something like this: "Toast is just cooked bread." Now, that might not seem like a big deal (and I'm trying not to make one out of it) but really, doesn't that line sit just a bit left of proper with you? Just cooked bread. "Just" cooked bread! I don't know about you, but there are people out there with no bread at all, and McDonald's thinks we're going to buy food just because it's more than just cooked bread?! What kind of a person would actually be motivated to go out and pay good money based on an ad like that? Well, maybe it was just a blip. It'll be changed in a bit.

The sign was indeed changed recently, to another McDonald's ad. This one wasn't much better (or better at all, if not worse) than the last. This one was advertising a chicken wrap of theirs, if I am not mistaken. The board read: "Lunch and dinner are so far apart." Damn right it is, but for people starving in LDCs. Lunch and dinner for us is approximately 5-7 hours apart (depending on how late you like to eat) but at least we get to eat. For some people out there, there is no lunch. Just dinner, which is their one and only meal a day.

I don't know why, but something about all this doesn't sit right with me on a personal level. I feel almost as if it's my fault that this kind of hyper-consumerism mentality could even be targeted by marketers. Is it really that our society has gotten so fat and full of itself that it doesn't even bother us that this is how companies think they can get us to buy their stuff?! Does this bug anyone else at all?!