The McDonald's ad featuring a carload of 17-year olds driving erratically and breaking numerous traffic laws while munching on McDonald's hamburgers is officially off the air.With a P-plate driver at the helm on the day he received his licence, this was one of the most-complained about advertisements in Australian television history.
This advertisement featured in a scathing comment on this site on 9 November 2007.Despite an investigation into this appalling advertisement by the Australian Advertising Standards Bureau, McDonald's fought valiantly to keep it on air.
But common sense finally prevailed when the Bureau ruled that the advertisement breached the Advertisers' Code because it contradicted prevailing community standards of health and safety.
What sorts of idiots run McDonald's advertising campaigns when a 10-year old could have told them that it was an entirely inappropriate advertisement?
But what is even more-galling is the outrageous responses given by McDonald's to members of the public who complained about the advertisement. You would think that McDonald's would take stock of the situation and not treat members of the public like burger-munching morons.
Published below for the first time in Australia is McDonald's official response to a written complaint about the advertisement which they received from a Gold Coast grandmother:
Thank you for you email regarding our Moments Advertisement. Our new brand advertising campaign was developed to capture and communicate some of the real emotions that are felt when an individual achieves a major milestone in their life... like passing their driving test and celebrating their excitement with friends.
In the development of this campaign we consulted with Vic Roads to work within their approved rules and guidelines and we followed the RTA guidelines.
Like all our commercials the Television Commercial was put into research to gauge customer reaction. Our research findings were that passing a driving test was a major milestone for people and remained one of their greatest memories. It was a moment that resonated across the research groups, and reignited fond memories of good times with friends and the sense of freedom that followed the driving test rite of passage.
The aim of the campaign was to reflect and illustrate the feelings and emotions consumers have towards the McDonald's brand. We can assure you any offence caused was most unintentional.
Once again thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald's Australia with your feedback.
Regards,
Rebekah
McDonald's Customer Service
Fair dinkum, McDonald's should pack up and go back to the United States if they are going to serve up that sort of crap to Australian consumers.
They are claiming that the advertisement had the support of VicRoads, that it followed New South Wales RTA Guidelines and that it got the tick of approval from research groups when the message of getting a licence for the first time "resonated across the research groups, and reignited fond memories of good times with friends and the sense of freedom that followed the driving test rite of passage".
With due respect to "Rebekah" from McDonald's Customer Service, this is the greatest load of twaddle ever perpetrated by a multi-national company in Australia.
You could have been more honest and just told the complainant to: "P*ss off" because that's exactly what you have done, except that you used 193 carefully-crafted words to achieve the same result!
Have you received a less-than-honest response from McDonald's or another fast-food chain? Email me today with full details. Companies like McDonald's - which treat consumers as fools and idiots - deserve to be exposed every time they step out of line.
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