I used to work in a job that did marketing promotions online for various media companies. Usually these were pretty benign campaigns, but from time to time the secondary sponsor would push my sense of ethics a bit. There wasn’t anything too bad (amazingly I avoided the dairy boards and big fast food during my 5 year tour of duty,) but once or twice I’d have to do something I wasn’t terribly comfortable with.
Anyway, I’m out now, and if I ever get another job I’ll be looking for something that’s safe from that kind of thing – I just didn’t like the conflict between my desire to do a good job and my desire to completely destroy what the “payer of the bills” stands for.
Still, there are times, often daily, where I see something and can’t figure out if it’s sheer marketing blunder or if there’s another vegan out there who chose route B.
Your case in point for the start of this long weekend: last month we talked a bit about a McDonald’s campaign involving super heroes. One group’s approach was to complain that the action figures were violent. Another group, apparently, either infiltrated the company or implanted subliminal messages to make Happy Meal toys like this one:
(and yes, I know Batman isn’t a Marvel hero. It’s probably another campaign. I can choose to watch what McDonald’s does every second of the day or what Batman does. Batman usually doesn’t make me throw up. OK, maybe a little.)
There are backstories to things like this that almost make me want to get a job in marketing again and deal with all the ethical crap, just so I can hear the tales. Someone had to have known what this would look like. Was it a dare? Did nobody want to speak up? Or was this actually on purpose?
None of this matters, really – McDonald’s is going to keep doing what it does, and people are going to keep eating there. A wanking Batman just doesn’t have the power to massively change consumer behaviour. It’s just funny, and if you can’t laugh at stuff once in a while, animal activism can get pretty depressing.
Both Colleen and PonderingWillow sent links to the latest McNonsense, which involves a woman trying to order Chicken McNuggets, but in the morning, when apparently you can’t get Chicken McNuggets, but don’t try to tell this lady that, or she’ll, well, she’ll go nuts, is what she’ll do, as captured on ye olde security footage.
After almost standing up for a McDonald’s campaign earlier this week (I maintain I was standing up for the Fantastic Four, and McD’s just got lucky,) I’m almost afraid to say this: I feel a little badly for the workers.
The workers, mind you, and not the corporation that sets things up in a way that this continues to happen (see our earlier survey of violence at McDonald’s.) Fast food workers are overall having a better go of it than slaughterhouse workers are, but cheap meat ain’t cheap, if you get my meaning. And before someone else says it, no, fruits and vegetables don’t have the best labour record either, but I’ll maintain that it’s a less violent form of oppression overall, which isn’t to say it’s OK, but, but, hey! I’m talking about McDonald’s here.
But besides the workers, you know who else I feel a little badly for? America. The links I received are from the BBC and a major Canadian newspaper, and unlike stuff that actually affects our lives, this is the kind of thing that gets sent around the office, and sadly, this is how other countries think everyone in the USA acts. I’m not even kidding – take the weirdest set of stereotypes about veganism you’ve heard from non-vegans, and then think about how people can categorize other large groups of people. Yeah.
Update Aug 12: Matty sent me the YouTube version so we can embed it. Mostly I just like saying embed:
Anyway, I still worry that I’m getting soft on McDonald’s, so here’s something else in my “use this image someday” folder that seems like a good way to show my colours:
(In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a big fan of the Fantastic Four, the comic, not the movies, particularly in my adult years, but my family will attest to the fact that the ranting they’ve had to endure for the past half hour is not biased by this at all.)
Hey, you wanna know what else? The McDonald’s promotion features the mutilated corpses of multiple animals. I’ve personally reached a point where they could put live ammunition in a Happy Meal and it wouldn’t offend me less.
But oh, wait, yes it can. Because now I’m a parent, and I read things. Things like how children are much more likely to eat like their parents eat. It’s interesting, not having been to a McDonald’s for anything other than the use of their washroom for many years now, I hadn’t realized that they now serve Happy Meals with apple slices instead of french fries and apple juice instead of soda (details as PDF here.) None of that matters though, because the kids are watching their parents eat the fries and drink the pop, and guess what they want to mimic?
Seriously, even if it’s not the parents, it’s going to be the people they see in line. And with obesity rates being what they are, I think they’re going to see a lot of stuff, and it’s going to be a lot scarier than anything you can put in a box as the “prize inside.”
There was a time where I might (thought I doubt I’d go this far) reach a little to find something to complain about McDonald’s about. But really, the appropriateness of the toys? I’d rather hope for a world where eating dead animals requires as much imagination as the idea of the Human Torch.
Oh, and I found this picture at one point in my research for this. It’d be a shame to waste it:
It seems that, in my absence, because yes, they clearly waited until my eyes were off the prize, McDonald’s has commenced plans to introduce smoothies to their restaurants. The move is expected to line up some competition with places like Jamba Juice, which has counter-fired with something they call the Cheeseburger Chill:
Except not really. It’s a joke, but they did make a spiffy website to promote it where you can get a coupon for a dollar off any actual smoothie they make. Which might be tasty, or might contain donkey; I really don’t know because they don’t have them up here. Smoothies, that is. Donkeys we have in abundance thanks to the Donkeys For Igloos exchange project the Canadian government whipped up a few years back to modernize our villages.
So here’s the riddle of the day: would you stop at a McDonald’s, say, on a road trip, for a smoothie? Let’s assume that they make something remotely healthful – it’s quite possible that these things will end up being watered-down McFlurries with fruit, if a McFlurry is actually a thing – it sounds like something they’d make, and I’m picturing something like a Blizzard or Frosty, but I can’t visit their website to research it without risking an outbreak of Yelling At The Computer, which wakes the baby. Seriously, I’m not even allowed to watch most current affairs shows on TV anymore.
Anyway, if McDonald’s made a fruit-based drink that could legitimately tide you over and contained zero cheeseburger, would you try it? As a last resort when on the go maybe? Or just plain never?
I am more than a little amazed, and more than a little scared. Via World Vegetarian and Vegan News, it would appear that Animal Aid is selling vegan creme eggs, which from the sound of things are similar to the Cadbury things that I grew up on (and may have tried to make a candy omelet out of, but reports from that era are sketchy.)
This is very cool, since seasonal products are the kind of thing that sucks for new vegans – they’re often tied to family traditions and shared stories, and as I’ve written about in the past, these are tough things to, well, let’s not say break, but certainly to change. Whatever your thoughts on Easter itself, up until now you couldn’t walk into a store without seeing one of the Cadbury bins (at least where I live) and at some level you’re thinking of how you don’t get to do that anymore.
And now, a solution exists! Sure, it’s mostly useful for people in the UK - I don’t know much more than what’s on the sales page and the blog post that led me to it, but it’s with mixed emotions that I note that Animal Aid charges a flat 25 pound shipping charge on any orders outside the EU. Which is where I am. I cannot begin to fathom the size of the order I’d have to make to get the average cost per egg down to a rationalizable level (though I may try.)
Still, this is a sign of things to come. The technology clearly exists!
What other seasonal snacks are still missing from the vegan pantry? This was a big one for me, but that’s probably because it’s the time of year where you can’t escape creme eggs. I doubt I’ll actually buy any (even if shipping was viable,) but I feel better just knowing they’re out there – both personally and for the benefit of veganism overall.
Hey, speaking of condom lube, Erik found some unsettling news that he knew he could trust me to deal with in a tasteful and discreet manner. Ready… and… Earmuffs!
Wanna know what a McDonald’s in New Zealand was giving out as Happy Meal prizes? Condoms! Well, at least one condom, anyway. The story’s as fuzzy as Grimace’s genetic code, but it seems like the outlet ran out of the normal gift and had started substituting some prepackaged sports bags. I don’t know if they all had condoms in them or if it was just this one that had been opened already, but apparently people are willing to overlook the whole advertising junk food to kids thing if the place would just stop giving condoms to seven year olds. I almost miss the old corporate days where an admission of guilt would never be utterred, and an incident of this would be dealt with in a “we meant to do that” manner including a new McDonaldLand character.
Weekend comment quiz: what’s the new McDonaldLand character that represents free condoms?
kunsjoi sent in some uplifting news! Do y’all like the uplifting news? I know I sure like uplifting news. It lifts me up, see. Oh! The news! A school district in California has committed to offering vegan meals in all school cafeterias. What’s more, the first day’s supply of veggie burgers sold out! Yes, there were only 12 of them, but it’s a good start. The board is continuing to serve non-vegan options, but it looks like this all came about from the actions of one teacher who started a vegan club.
The only issue I’ve got with the news is the ongoing theme that veganism means marginalization and sacrifice – for example, there’s someone mentioned who claims to have “abandoned a lucrative career to dedicate her life to animal rights.” Why can’t people have both if they want to?
The last post of a Friday is always a pain to pick out, since it generally stays at the top until Monday. Do I go for something controversial? Do I target a specific group of meat eating porn surfers? Do I manage to spell everything correctly? This week I’m going for the trifecta by posting a coupon for a free veggie burger from PETA. They’re for some chain called Johnny Rockets, which, despite my fine midland American accent, I’ve not heard of, but they sound decent for a burger chain, and appear to recognize that vegetarians have money. Link. (Thanks Amy!)
(Story via 
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I am more than a little amazed, and more than a little scared. Via 