BBB or MMM ??
McDonald's. "Big Beefy Bliss." Advertisement. 2017.
(The author and place of publication of the above McDonald’s ad is unknown)
The above advertisement published by McDonald’s in 2017 is meant to make the viewer want to buy one of three hamburgers: The Double Quarter Pounder with cheese, the Big Mac, or the Angus Deluxe Third Pounder (personally, no thanks but if you like McDonald’s go for it). The hamburgers are set against an extremely bright red background with the Big Mac as the main act and the Angus Deluxe Third Pounder and Double Quarter Pounder with cheese taking on the backup singer roles. This advertisement applies to the deadly sin of gluttony- “habitual greed or excess in eating”, because well, there are three burgers thrown in the viewer’s face that are obviously loaded with unnecessary calories.
As it is glaringly obvious, the advertisement utilizes alliteration to convey the main selling points of these three burgers- “big, beefy, bliss”. Now I don’t know about you, but when I see these three burgers I think more along the lines of “made (in a factory), mystery, meat.” The three burgers look like they have been freshly made and made with the utmost love and care, but let’s be honest, when have you ever gotten a quarter pounder whose lettuce looks like it came straight from the garden and whose bun looks like it was just pulled out of grandma’s oven? The bright red background serves to emphasize not only a signature color of McDonald’s branding, but to also provide a contrast against the beautiful beefy burgers. The “I’m lovin it” is also a cute little addition to the advertisement as your eye follows the images of the burgers and then surprise! You’re loving it!
In 2017 it was recorded that there are approximately 14,146 McDonald’s in North America with the total number of McDonald’s in the world being 36,899. It was also estimated that they serve approximately 68 million customers each day. 68 MILLION. That is absolutely insane. That’s more than the entire population of France. The intended audience of this ad are people that like McDonald’s (duh) and are most likely coming from a lower economic class because McDonald’s is easily affordable and convenient. Furthermore, the intended audience would most definitely be one that eats meat (or fake meat I should say). Obviously this ad would not apply to the vegan and vegetarian communities.
However, I find it interesting that McDonald’s are so universally well known. According to Huffington Post, the farthest point from a McDonalds is only 107 miles away. It is almost impossible to not know what a McDonald’s is or where at least one is located. This therefore makes McDonald’s a way of unifying peoples from all different cultures, because hey! You might not know what I’m saying but if I say “McDonald’s” or show you a bright yellow M set on a red background you will most definitely know what I’m referring to.
Thank goodness for the Big Beefy Bliss that eliminates cultural barriers.
