Ethical Controversies in Mcdonalds Dead Dad Advertisement

Every day in the United States, 34. 3 percent of children and adolescents are consuming a significant portion of their daily nutrition from fast food restaurants. One of the most famous fast food restaurants is McDonald’s which feeds 45 million people around the world each day, this is more than the population of Spain. Even with McDonalds popularity, the franchise is still looking to expand.

In 2017 a specific ad was launched in the UK which caused a lot of controversy. This famous franchise took a risk and used emotions and pity to promote their product which had multiple negative reactions. It even reached to the point that the ad had to be taken down. McDonalds uses feelings of pity towards the boy due to the loss of his father to originally make the viewer feel sympathy which would make them inclined to by the product since their product is the only thing that connects the boy to his father. However, this did not go as planned for McDonalds as the ad created a link from the viewer to the franchise of sadness and this would reflect negatively on their product because every time a person thinks of McDonalds their mind would go to the heart-breaking ad. A long list of comparisons is listed by the mother about the son and his father, the viewer is supposed to feel pity and sympathy for the boy the more the mother lists qualities that the father has that the son does not have. In the end, the only thing the son and father had in common was their McDonalds order. This caused a lot of controversy since it came out as offensive to people who have dead parents. Viewers believed the ad was insensitive and almost mocking of children that have dead parents.

The technical devices such as the song McDonalds used is supposed to trigger sorrowful thoughts and emotions such as pity, loss, and sadness instantly which correlates to the ads main purpose which is to make the viewer feel sympathy for the child, so it would incline them to buy their product. Another example is the environment of the video such as the dulled colors and the cloudy weather reflect which reflects the mood of the boy in the video and his internal conflict of how he is not like his dad. Even if McDonalds is an established brand they are still looking to expand. Since McDonalds is established they already hold a reputation which influences consumers opinions sometimes positively but other times negatively.

In this ad they wanted to reflect their company in a specific way to the viewers. This specific way was that they, “Wanted to highlight the role McDonald’s has played in our customers’ everyday – both in good and difficult times. ” As shown in the backlash many people did not agree with McDonalds way of thinking. Many different opinions came out from this ad, mostly harmful. A prime example of that would be indirectly encouraging an eating disorder. By showing that McDonalds is also there for you in bad times it encourages Binge Eating Disorder (BED).

Another example that it comes out as offensive that the only thing relating a dead parent to a child is a burger. If a young child with a dead parent comes across this ad, they may go to their caretaker and start questioning their relationship with their parents which could lead to depressive thoughts. McDonalds way of reflecting themselves in the ad was not wrong, however they executed this it poorly and their message could have been expressed in an entirely different way. While creating this ad McDonalds took a risk to focus on emotions, to trigger specific feelings. Since focusing so much on the pathos they completely forgot about the logic and facts that could be used to improve this ad. It is completely logical to think that associating a burger to a dead parent should come out as offensive.

McDonalds did not take the precautions necessary and didn’t look too deep into the logos, they over looked it and had it run. If one takes a closer look they will obviously notice the lack of thought, facts, and overall logic put into the ad. Owing to the lack of logic present in the ad it affected the viewers in a negative way.