A seemingly wholesome family ad for McDonald’s has been attacked for being, well, too family and too wholesome!
McDonald’s Japan just released the cute 20-second anime spot to its Twitter/X account that showed a couple and their young daughter enjoying some fries and nuggets. The work also promoted the fast food chain’s upcoming range of Halloween toys.
The ad features the message “Happy times aren’t out of the ordinary”.
特別じゃない、しあわせな時間。 pic.twitter.com/P7Og6hbMsx
— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) September 20, 2023
The spot’s been live for a week and has now gone global, attracting a very impressive 138 million views.
And in yet further proof people will rage about anything, the cutesy cartoon has now attracted the attention of the loons and the conspiracy theorists.
Luckily, most people saw it for what it was – a nice moment between a family – however, in its homeland of Japan, the spot has been called out as some sort of sinister political statement that infers young Japanese people should start having families.
Japan has a famously declining birthrate and this year it’s predicted the country will hit a record low in kids being born. One person tweeted of the work, “I am not immune to pro-family propaganda.”
This broke the mind of American Twitter and it wasn’t even its intended audience. https://t.co/oGXslZ6A2f
— Cody (@AltHistCody) September 21, 2023
The spot’s also gone viral in the US, where a number of social media users praised its wholesome nuclear family vibe and others – both the fors and the dissenters – derided the usual heavy handed messaging that comes with a lot of McDonald’s work.
One American labelled the spot “WokeDonalds” and went so far as to re-draw the spot featuring two dads.
Here’s just some comments from the ad’s naysayers:
“Looks like Japan isn’t in favour of commercials with interracial, childless or LGBTQ couples. Who would’ve thought.”
“Thank you for making me depressed McDonald’s Japan. What would I do without you?”
“That anime McDonald’s ad is my greatest nightmare.”
“I love my mcbreeding ads.”
“It’s creepy how the mom has the exact same proportions as the child. Like literally down to the hands.”
“Theory: McDonald’s is now trying to appeal to pedophiles?”
While fans of the ad responded with:
“For people living in the other world, this is called family and they are enjoying a normal meal together.”
“So apparently people find this offensive for some reason? I just find it cute.”
“Why tf are so many people losing their minds over this commercial? It’s an anime family eating it’s not like it’s Redo of Healer so what’s the issue?”
“The people who make a fuss after seeing this commercial are probably very dissatisfied with their lives.”
And things have got stranger still. In the US, the ad has stirred the right-wingers and conservatives who’ve used the spot to claim American McDonald’s ads always come with some sort of social or political messaging (not that that’s even true!)
Now a spot from 2020 featuring black trans activist Imara Jones, in which she implores the police to stop killing Black people, has resurfaced.
Some Americans are now comparing the two ads (seemingly unaware the Jones’ ad is three-years old) and are using the two to somehow highlight, what they see as, a lack of good old family values in McDonald’s’ American campaigns!
“Black trans women have a very simple message: stop killing us” – @imarajoneshttps://t.co/KLsZbLzH7i pic.twitter.com/F7IGLPlAK4
— McDonald’s (@McDonalds) June 29, 2020
Some rightwing nutcases are now even threatening to boycott McDonald’s in protest!
The campaign in Japan is one of three ads in a series. You can watch the other two below:
こんな時間を大切にね。大人より pic.twitter.com/VYkV5w2qrD
— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) September 22, 2023
風が気持ちいい。夜はこれから。 pic.twitter.com/1C5OFP40aL
— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) September 24, 2023
