McDonald’s, the master of capitalism and changing to fit local nuance, is taking a surprising route in marketing it’s new “Big Tasty” in France. Not content to use the French commercial standard of “mime eats an imaginary sandwich, cries, stares unblinking at camera for 2 minutes straight, then is shot by a masked man with the words ‘c’est la vie’ emblazoned across his chest,” McDonald’s is taking, well, an ironic approach. For its new sandwich, McDonald’s has produced a commercial so American it borderlines on the absurd. Replete with bald eagles, Native Americans, cowboys, pick-up trucks, wailing guitars, and sprawling canyon vistas, the commercial also features the most American of things: a huge fast-food burger with bacon.

Imagine if McDonald’s had done the same in America and ran a commercial as quintessentially French. The cries of rednecks everywhere would render the commercial unlistenable, peaking with shrill, brazen, uneducated hollers every time a small cafe appeared on screen. So consistent the yelling would be a state of emergency would be issued resulting in the cancellation of Nascar events, more yelling, a national day of remembrance, a cultural invasion of the Spanish, even more yelling, boycotts, and eventually, a Republican victory in November of 2008. In that order.

Truly, McDonald’s is doing the American public a solid by not releasing such a video.

Serious Eats: In Videos: McDonald’s France’s ‘Big Tasty’ Commercial.

- Rob O’Reilly

Posted on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 3:14 pm in the category:Culture, Fast Food, Video. Comment RSS 2.0 feed. Comment it , or trackback this post.