The 47-second ad shows a gay teen seated in a fast-food restaurant, talking to his boyfriend on his mobile phone. He promptly hangs up when he sees his father returning with a tray of McDonald's food. The father, unaware of his son's sexual orientation, proceeds to joke about the son's all-male class at school. It's too bad, he says, else he could get all the girls.
The ad, which is one in a long-running French campaign that uses the slogan "venez come vous etes," meaning "come as you are," has become a viral Internet sensation attracting over two million views on Youtube since it was uploaded three weeks ago and a slurry of commentary on gay and media blogs.
In a wide-ranging interview with Don Thompson, Chief Operating Officer and No. 2 post worldwide, Michael Oneal of the Chicago Tribune asked to discuss why the ad had not stirred controversy in France where it aired and instead attracted controversy in the US where it has not and will not air on television.
Right after saying that "markets, cultures are very different around the world," he offered his religious views without being prompted. "I've never shied away from the fact that I'm a Christian. I have my own personal beliefs and I don't impose those on anybody else."
He added: "I've been in countries where the majority of the people in the country don't believe in a deity or they may be atheist. Or the majority of the country is Muslim. Or it may be the majority is much younger skewed. So when you look at all these differences, it's not that I'm to be the judge or the jury relative to right or wrong. Having said that, at McDonald's, there are core values we stand for and the world is getting much closer. So we have a lot of conversations. We're going to make some mistakes at times. (We talk) about things that may have an implication in one part of the world and may be the cultural norm in another part of the world. And those are things that, yes, we're going to learn from. But, you're right, that commercial won't show in the United States."
He went on to acknowledge in the interview published on Jun 13 that, "there have been no negatives coming out of France" with respect to the ad.
Blogger and marketing consultant David Allen Ibsen wondered aloud why the press has been covering the story as if it was "some gay-targeted campaign to get homosexuals to eat Big Macs."
Pointing to SlashFood's headline: "McDonald's Targets Gay Customers in French TV Commercial", he argues that McDonald's isn't targeting gays. "They are targeting everyone by featuring a touching father/son moment. It is kind of like including a blonde-haired woman in an ad and writing a story with the headline 'McDonald's targets blondes."'
Nathalie Legarlantezec, a spokeswoman for McDonald's, told French media: "We wanted to show society the way it is today, without judging: there's obviously no problem with homosexuality in France today."
Ibsen concluded his post saying "when an ad like this is NOT news, is when Americans can demonstrate their acceptance of such social issues."
While the ad is attracting criticism from conservative groups, it is also being held up as proof that McDonald is for not doing enough to engage its LGBT consumers in the US.
A week after the video went viral, the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce sent McDonald’s a scathing letter reminding them of the "souring state of relations between (the) two organizations" and to "express (their) utter dismay at the blatant geographic pandering to the LGBT community in the recently released TV ad in France, while McDonald’s has continued to distance itself from the LGBT segment in the United States."
The NGLCC says it has been pressing McDonald’s for years to present a concrete action plan on how it planned to reach out and engage the American gay and lesbian consumer but has not received a response from the company. The group also writes that McDonald’s has declined to sign on to any of the organisation’s initiatives this year.
“The French TV ad has truly been the last straw,” the letter dated Jun 3, 2010 read. “To allow people to believe that McDonald’s is the kind of partner portrayed in this ad would be a complete failure on our part to serve as an honest and trusted resource for LGBT people and our families to help make informed decisions in the marketplace.”
In 2008, the American Family Association, a religious conservative group firmly against marriage equality for and LGBT friendly legislation, called for a boycott of McDonald's after taking issue with the company's US$20,000 sponsorship and its decision to allow an employee, Richard Ellis, vice president of communications, to sit on NGLCC's board.
The letter also serves as official notice that the NGLCC will not accept future support or membership by McDonald’s or any of its subsidiaries "barring a significant change in policy on the part of McDonald’s."