While there are many controversial and absurd McDonald’s advertisements out there, this one struck me the most because of its irony. The advertisement is telling the public that McDonald’s was an official restaurant of the Olympic Games for 2016. There is an obvious irony of McDonald’s, an unhealthy fast food restaurant, being the official restaurant for the Olympics, a healthy sporting event. The stripes on the man’s sweater and the positioning of the burger is made to look like he is wearing a medal with a burger as the medal. I think that this advertisement can take on two interpretations. The first interpretation could be that McDonald’s is emphasizing that by eating at McDonald’s restaurants we are supporting the Olympics and, therefore, we are all winners – hence the burger medal. One can view the man in the advertisement, who seems to be healthy and fit, as an athlete. This leads to the second interpretation which could be that athletes in the Olympics are promoting unhealthy eating and that eating McDonald’s can help you win a medal. Either way, in the guise of being an “official restaurant of the Olympics”, it gives viewers the impression that eating McDonald’s isn’t that bad. In fact, if looking at it with the first interpretation, McDonald’s is not bad at all when given the impression that they can become winners through eating McDonald’s. In addition, by using a model who is seemingly fit, having perfect skin, and a smile on his face, viewers do not actually see the physical effects of McDonald’s and fast foods to the body. With this blindness they are more likely to be lured into buying and consuming McDonald’s food.
I chose to jam this advertisement in a way that shows the effects of eating McDonald’s and, therefore, highlighting the absurdity and irony of the corporation being partners with the Olympic games. The reason why I chose an image of a child is because children pursuing sports look up to the best athletes in the world and those athletes compete at the Olympics. When they see an advertisement seeing McDonald’s as an official restaurant of the Olympics, it gives them an incentive to eat there. Using the Olympics is just a way to cover up the negative and harmful effects of eating McDonald’s and other fast foods. Showing such an image of an obese child gives insights to children and adults alike to the realities to unhealthy eating. I chose to keep the burger medal as a way to further highlight the absurdity of the message of being rewarded when subjecting a body to fast foods. I chose to add more effects of eating McDonald’s on the burger medal to show that eating fast foods does not result in winning a gold medal, but in health problems like diabetes, obesity, depression, etc. Another reason why I added these effects to the medal is because not all the negative effects of eating fast foods are physically visible (i.e. diabetes and depression). I hope that bringing to light these not so obvious effects would help people realize that behind a smiling and seemingly fit model in a fast food advertisement, could be someone suffering from major internal health problems just from choosing an unhealthy lifestyle. I left the Vancouver Olympic and McDonald’s logos the same to further reiterate the absurdity and irony of the social message of the advertisement.
