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.
I like the advertisement that you choose because it can relate to everyone because almost all of us have seen an advertisement just like this and it is mainly used to appeal to people of the same age range and younger. I feel like you could have gone in depth with the color symbolism of the red background which could have incorporated another deadly sin which is lust. You could have mentioned that the red in the background symbolizes love and it is used as an advertisement technique to get the audience to associate the food with love to have a desire to eat the burgers. Also, the company logo of "I'm lovin' it" incorporates lust for the products sold at McDonald's. Also with the gluttony, you could have mentioned that the size of the burger was larger than normal and this was a technique to make the people think that they are getting more food for the low price that they are pay. Quotation marks are not that necessary when saying “made (in a factory), mystery, meat.”. But I like that you gave some context and facts about McDonald's. Overall, there are some suggestions that you could consider but it's good.
ReplyDeleteHi Sophie! I really enjoyed the advertisement you chose and your corresponding analysis of it. I thought it was well thought-out and insightful. I think you could have gone into a little more detail about the deadly sin part of the advertisement - you talk about the obvious factors of the advertisement, such as having a burger loaded with calories thrown in your face, but I believe you could have gone a little deeper. For instance, the burgers advertised are not just any burgers, they're like two burgers in one! Aside from this, I really enjoyed how you connected the advertisement to a cultural aspect, in that McDonald's is almost universally recognizable. This is an interesting (and scary!) concept. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteHey hey!! Although biased, I loved how you exploited the way fast-food advertisements play on the audience's sub-conscious desires. Seeing this ad, I immediately knew you were going to reference it to gluttony; This means you did a great job choosing an advertisement that accurately depicts the sin. Although I loved your analysis of this depiction of gluttony, seeing as simple but detailed it was, I do wish that you went more than the surface level meaning. Lastly, I greatly enjoyed how it was an advertisement, that even if the person reading had never seen, can connect to it because McDonalds is such a large part of the Standard American Diet.
ReplyDeleteI love how you commented on the irrational, bigot fast food industry. Many companies, especially in the food industry
ReplyDeletehey sophie
ReplyDeleteI love how you commented on the irrational, bigot fast food industry. Many companies, especially in the food industry manipulate consumers into believing things that are not reality. I think you did a great analyzing the purpose of the advertisement and the components' role in the advertisement. I really liked how you expressed your opinion the industry, as I strongly agree with you. I agree with megan, in saying that you could've gone into more depth on the connection to the seven deadly sins. You initially incorporated gluttony, and proposed a strong argument for this but lost the topic of the deadly sins. Overall, I love how you strongly voiced your opinion on the American culture and its disturbing fast food industry
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome Sophie! I loved how you could really see your personality and sense of humor in this post, it added a lot of character! I also like your introduction paragraph, because you set up the context very smoothly. Your use of facts and background knowledge builds on your argument very nicely.
ReplyDeleteNice blog post Sophie! I really liked your description of the ad, and how it used different techniques such as alliteration. Also explaining why the color choices impacted the ad was good too. I can totally see how this ad connects to gluttony, but I think you could develop more for that aspect of the ad. But overall, I really liked this post and I think your intende audiece is spot on!
ReplyDeleteHey Sophie!
ReplyDeleteNice ad selection! I believe your description and analysis of the McDonald's ad was spot on. I think the obvious sin being utilized is gluttony and that the ad works to persuade viewers to buy McDonalds by tempting them through the image of "big. beefy. bliss(ful)" burgers. The alliteration is utilized to grab the attention of viewers and the harsh harp red background juxtaposes the burgers, making them pop. I liked you inclusion of how the red works to grab the viewers' attention because it made me think of something I learned from a psychology course: researchers consider warmer colors such as red and yellow to be appetite-stimulating. Looking at warmer colors increases the heart rate and thus hunger as a result. Therefore, the ad is also utilizing the red to reinforce the sin of gluttony by hoping the color will further stimulate hunger. Anyway, I just thought that was something worth sharing. I think you did a good job on exploring the intended/specific audience of the ad but also mentioned how diverse and widespread the consumers of McDonalds actually spans. I suppose you could have reinforced the sin of gluttony a little more throughout your post (i.e. perhaps relating how hunger is universal among humans and therefore utilizing the sin makes for a broader market/audience), but overall great post!
I love how you broke your blog into different sections explaining the post then going into your own analysis about the ad itself. I like your background knowledge you used in this by pulling in other statistics. overall, good job.
ReplyDeleteHey Sophie!!
ReplyDeleteI loved your ad selection and how you explained the appealing colors and texts within the ad. It really explains a lot about why Americans love it so much! Your casual tone was nice to read and I loved how you tied in facts to reiterate your points. Nice job girl!
Heyyy Sophie, I really like your description and analysis of the ad. I agree with the prescribed audience and the aims of the ad. The ad perfectly demonstrates gluttony, good job making the connection. I also liked the data you included on the franchise; it puts into perspective just how vast their influence is and makes your argument that more powerful. Lastly, you kept me interested throughout your blog. Despite the grammatical errors, I really like the subjective writing style you chose.
ReplyDeleteHow could the advertisement be dated 2017, when there are sites discussing it in 2014?
ReplyDelete