McDonald’s Pulls Dead Dad Ad (VIDEO)

Sometimes, you wonder how ad agencies ask for their check with a straight face. Like after watching every single Super Bowl commercial. Or the British McDonald’s ad where a kid learns from his mom that his dead dad liked Filet O’ Fish sandwiches just like he did. A real touchpoint.

Throughout the commercial you see the boy learning that his deceased father he never knew was much better than he was in most every way. Dad was a big man. The son is smallish. Dad had shiny shoes. The boy has dirty sneaks. Dad was captain of the soccer team. The son kicks like a spazz. Dad was a catch for the ladies. The son can’t get girls to notice him. Oh, but those cheap-ass fish like fried cakes with a mayonnaise slather at Mickey D’s, you both loved those.

“Did dad have blue eyes like me?”

“No son, he had brown eyes”.

Nice of mom not to keep even a single photo of dead dad around the house so you might have seen his eyes before. What a whore. She’s probably fucking his brother. Even if the British accent makes her sound caring.

The advertisement received a ton of backlash from Bereavement Support Groups in England which apparently are a real thing. They represent families who have lost loved ones. So, every single family ever. They found the ad tasteless and manipulative of a kid growing up without a father. Hard to argue their point. Less clear is why a company hawking four billion ground fish part sandwiches a year would give a shit. They’re a buck fifty and have enough calories to feed an Ethiopian village for two moons. The buying decision is not one based on complex morality.

The ad was pulled. Chalk up the over-reaction to social media. It used to take old ladies in church groups writing repeated letters about seeing a gay man on Three’s Company to get massive companies to respond. Now it’s a hashtag and a few thousand dittos. You wanted corporate responsiveness. You’ve got corporate responsiveness. It largely sucks. Why can’t they melt the fucking cheese?