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  • Essay / Ethical Controversies in McDonald's Dead Dad Commercial

    Every day in the United States, 34.3 percent of children and adolescents consume a significant portion of their daily diet at fast food restaurants. One of the most famous fast food restaurants is McDonald's, which feeds 45 million people around the world every day, which is more than the population of Spain. Even with McDonald's popularity, the franchise is still looking to expand. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In 2017, a specific advertisement was launched in the United Kingdom, which caused a lot of controversy. This famous franchise took a risk and used emotion and pity to promote their product which received multiple negative reactions. It even got to the point that the ad had to be removed. McDonalds uses feelings of pity towards the boy due to the loss of his father to initially make the viewer feel sympathy, which would make him inclined towards the product since his product is the only thing that connects the boy to his father. However, this did not go as planned for McDonalds because the ad created a connection between the viewer and the sadness franchise, which would have negatively impacted their product because every time a person thought about McDonalds, his mind drifted to the heartbreaking commercial. . A long list of comparisons is made by the mother about the son and his father, the viewer is supposed to feel pity and sympathy for the boy, plus the mother lists the qualities of the father that the son does not have . In the end, the only thing the son and father had in common was their McDonald's order. This caused a lot of controversy because it was found to be offensive to people whose parents had died. Viewers thought the ad was insensitive and almost mocked children whose parents had died. Technical devices such as the song used by McDonald's are meant to instantly trigger painful thoughts and emotions such as pity, loss and sadness, which correlates with the main objective of the advertisement which is to arouse in the spectator of sympathy for the child, in order to encourage him to buy his product. Another example is the environment of the video, such as the dull colors and cloudy weather which reflects the boy's mood in the video and his internal conflict that he is not like his father. Even though McDonalds is an established brand, it is always looking to expand. Since McDonalds has been established, they have already enjoyed a reputation that influences consumers' opinions, sometimes positively, but sometimes negatively. In this ad, they wanted to reflect their company in a specific way to the viewers. In this specific way, they “wanted to highlight the role that McDonald's plays in our customers' daily lives – both in good times and in difficult times. “As the backlash shows, many people disagreed with McDonald's way of thinking. Many different opinions came out of this ad, most of them harmful. A good example of this would be indirectly encouraging an eating disorder. By showing that McDonalds is also there for you in tough times, it encourages binge eating disorder (BED). Another example that seems offensive is that the only thing that connects a deceased parent to a child is a hamburger. If a young child whose parent has died comes across this ad, they can approach their guardian and begin to question their relationship.