McDonalds has some of the most effective advertising strategies out there. Their designs promote colorful menus, toys based on popular movies, large portions for a small price, and that you are loving this. The fact that their commercials appear every five minutes definitely helps. You will think McDonalds every day and know that one is just a block away. An article I recently read discusses these points regarding child obesity.
As many of these advertisements are addressed towards children, are these designers conscious about the high percentage of obesity among children and the health problems these children will encounter throughout their lives because of the effectiveness of their advertisement?
This brings out an important ethical point. What do we do as designers when advertising for companies on whose beliefs we do not take a part of? Do we not participate in certain designs, decide on working for a non-profit organization instead, or ignore certain things and move on with our lives the way some politicians ignore global warming? Where would you draw a line?
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Hmm, you bring up an extremely interesting discussion that could probably carry on for hours. I really like what you said at the end there, “Do we not participate in certain designs, decide on working for a non-profit org instead…” because I have been battling with that question since I started designing. I think that if you are working for a large firm that is dealing with corporate clients such as McDonald’s, then you already know what kind of design you were getting yourself into at the beginning. I am not sure if you can just be like, “Yeah, I don’t feel like working for the McDonald’s campaign because I don’t support child obesity.” Your Creative Director (or whoever) would probably look at you like you were crazy, and you might not get away with that.
Then again, everything is okay to eat… in moderation. McDonald’s is fine for kids every once in a while, but not everyday. I think that some of their commercials that suggest eating breakfast at McDonald’s everyday (the ones where kids are eating McD’s breakfast on the way to school) are suggesting that McDonald’s should be an everyday thing, and I think that’s where they’re getting into issues like supporting childhood obesity.
McDonald’s advertisements have been on the spotlight for many years as some of the most ethically wrong commercial campaigns. Eating McDonald’s food does not make a kid obese all of a sudden, but the way McDonald’s advertises its products, as fun and great for kids, is what makes their ad campaigns morally dishonest. For many years activist groups have been trying to stop the McDonald’s lie. Along with them there are other famous brands that have been targeted for similar reasons by anti-corporate movements. Ten years ago Naomi Klein, a Canadian author wrote NO LOGO. I assume most people have read it. The book became a guide “to understand how branding drives the local market.” (The Toronto Star) It made me wonder if sometimes being a graphic designer means being the visual voice of a lie. Is being a graphic designer completely incoherent and against good principals? Are graphic designers at risk of giving up their integrity? I think, (maybe just to be at peace with myself) that each designer should be able to decide what kind of business he or she wants to accept. During a meeting with GMMB we talked about this issue. The DC based design firm markets itself as a kind of firm who works only for clients that are ethically aligned with the firm’s principles. I think this kind of ethical questions concern most professions. A lawyer can decide to accept or not a specific case based on his ethical views. Designers can do the same.
if you dont design it, someone else will. honestly, what are you asking out of mcdonalds? i mean, i had a commercialesque experience this afternoon with my always dissatisfying but never avoidable big mac. and it wasnt with a group of morbidly obese people. and some of them actually enjoyed their meals. so, to say mcdonalds is lying about something is a little outrageous. they just dont include “our food is obviously not good for you body” in their ads. and if they did, what kind of market have they just created? do you want Kid Vid or Lingo [[burger king is my grease of choice]] to be a cute, plump, round kid? that’d be a bad design as it is bad advertising. no one is going to willing sell their company out. i think its these assumptions that make the next generations life so sheltered. you know you can’t even play dodge ball in school anymore?
As designers, I think we all need to find where we personally are comfortable with what type of clients we work for and where we draw the line in terms of our own morals and ethics. This will vary for all of us, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that individuals (and parents) are responsible for making decisions as well by interpreting what’s out there and understanding what’s right and wrong and in between. We can’t bear all of the weight…anyone in their right mind understands that no matter how good a big mac is it just isn’t that good for our health. We can’t live sheltered lives. People just need to learn to make their own decisions by being smart and reasonable about things…and to not feed their children micky d’s everyday for breakfast!
Has anyone noticed that a ‘partner’ of the Winter Olympic Games is none other than McDonalds? This is their 8th consecutive games as the Official Restaurant. As if that’s not bad enough, they have these ad campaigns that show Olympians eating McDonalds. There’s a whole slew of them, to see a peek, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f7bVweyrak
Yes, i know. Ive been forced to watch their commercials all weekend! in the end though, McDonalds is similar to Wal-Mart. They both bring jobs into town, but arent necessarily good for mankind.
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