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McDonald's Is Turning It All Around With A Desperate 24-Hour Publicity Stunt
By
Nell Casey
Published Mar 24, 2015
Modified Mar 24, 2015
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By
Nell Casey
Published Mar 24, 2015
Modified Mar 24, 2015
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It's almost as if McDonald's has gone out of its way to seem out of touch recently, from its archaic business practices to unintentionally hilarious HR interventions. But goshdarnit they've got to try something to win over those promiscuous millennials, who laughed at previous attempts to divert their brand loyalty to the Golden Arches. So the creative team at McDonald's HQ has come up with a new tactic, one sure to inspire millions into eating crappy hamburgers: a 24-hour PR stunt on which the brand is expected to spend between $30 and $40 million to pull off, according to BuzzFeed. Bah dah buh buh boneheads.
The free festivities—dubbed "24 Hours of Joy"—kicked off yesterday with a giant ball pit in Sydney meant to distract commuters from their routines and maybe give them a gratis staph infection, followed by a motorbike record breaking stunt in Ho Chi Minh City and other truly bizarre stunts across the globe.
The United States was only #blessed with one event: a free concert in Los Angeles tonight with recording artist Ne-Yo, who'll be debuting a new song "crowdsourced" by people on social media. If it's one thing America needed to attain joy, it's the rhetoric of internet trolls set to music. It could be worse: in Sweden, the national ski team was compelled to put on a three-hour fashion show wearing gear emblazoned with Big Macs.
It's not shocking in the least that McDonald's would think the solution to shedding their dehumanizing veneer would be to throw money around like it ain't no thang. Meanwhile, their workers are literally living in poverty and could most certainly have benefitted from the living wage those millions could have helped support. Most troubling of all, however, is that despite its strong Mickey D's collection, NYC was not deemed influential enough to receive this special, joyful treatment. "We specifically selected 24 cities to create an impact by seeing 24 gifts of joy across the world within 24 hours," the Director of Global Media Relations told us. "The participating markets contribute to a large part of our global footprint." So hurtful, considering how passionately we feel about them.
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24 hours of joy
day of joy
i'm loving it
mcdonald's
Nell Casey
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