Against whatever amounts to my better judgement, I bought McDonald’s for lunch today. On the outside of the bag, along with the question “Are you Mac Enough?” (answered with “You bet your seasame seed bun!”), there’s this inane bit of copy:
You know those fries that wind up at the bottom of the bag? What do you call those? Do you eat them first? Like an appetizer? Or maybe you eat them last. That way, you can say, “Oh, man, I’m all out of fries. WAIT — no I’m not!” That is a sweet feeling, my friend. Or maybe they’re the ones you let yourself eat in the car on your way back from a McDonald’s run for your buddies. Since they fell out of their box, no one can claim ownership. They’re public domain. Go for it.
I bring this up not to shill for the Golden Arches, but because I think it’s helpful to remember that, no matter how stupid or inept or insulting an advertisement may appear to be, chances are someone spent a great deal of time working on it. What you see above probably went through many, many drafts until it represented the absolute best its writers could dream up and exactly the image the company wanted to convey.
I don’t know about you, but I find that more than just a little bit frightening.