McDonalds Ads - tell us how do you feel about them folks?

[JustineMumsnet]

Good day MNetters,
We've been asked if we'd host ads for McDonalds, so we thought we'd ask what you think. Would you object to banner ads (ie like the one at the top of the page) on Mumsnet?
Let us know.

I like the McDonalds ads alot better than the crappy Ocean Finance ones, injury lawyers ones and the Go Compare ads too.

Go for it.

I don't see any ads as I have some adware blocker or something (not technically minded) that I installed because of the annoying waving ad that drove me mad.
So, I am not fussed.

I want a Big Mac now!

It can only be better than the Peppa Pig one - DD1 clicked on it when I went for a this morning and is now telling anyone who will listen she is going to Peppa pig world on Saturday and nothing in the world - not even MaccyDs will persuade her otherwise!

Wouldn't bother me in the slightest, we're all adults capable of making decisions about where we eat.

Plus most many of us probably do take our children there for an occasional treat. It's not like using Mumsnet means you're too good for a sodding happy meal - hate that attitude - it's a perfectly sensible advertising decision from McD's.

If I saw a McDonald's ad on these pages it would only serve to remind me of what utter crap they serve up and label as 'food'. Seeing an ad for their 'restaurants' does not offend me half as much as what they actually do.

If people want to eat overprocessed, fat-and-sugar-laden rubbish, that's up to them.

Jade, you are a woman after my own grammatical heart.

Are we really that 'McDonalds is dog poo' here?

Meh, it's a burger, ok on occasion surely?

I've been on here nearly 8 years, and have eaten the occasional McDonalds in that time as I'm sure have many other MNers, so a big fat to the fallacy that it wouldn't appeal to the MN demographic. It's probably more accurate to say to would appeal to the organic/Boden/upperMC MN stereotype and plenty of us don't fit into that little box.

Run the ad if the money's right. I rarely notice what they're for anyway.

Balls.

It's probably more accurate to say to say it wouldn't appeal to the organic/Boden/upperMC MN stereotype and plenty of us don't fit into that little box.

For the love of Chuck please can we have an edit post facility?

Read McLibel before saying they haven't done anything unethical or evil! But by all means let them advertise on here if they think it will do them any good.

For those mumsnetters who aren't as old as me - some of the problems with McDonalds:

sells unhealthy, addictive junk food;

exploits children with its advertising;

exploits its workers and bans unions;

are complicit in Third World starvation;

wastes vast quantities of grain and water;

complicit in rainforest destruction.

Please don't put their horrible logo on here. I may not be a prolific mumsnetter now but I'll definitely be gone if I have to look at that when I log on.

(Arguments above are from the infamous what's wrong with McDonalds leaflet , which McD's sued social justice campaigners for writing, and in the most part was found to be factual, by the High Court judge in the long running libel trial for instance. It may have been a while ago but they certainly aren't any better now.)

I don't really notice the ads in all honesty but it wouldn't bother me who advertised here. You can make your own choices no matter what advertising you are bombarded with IMO. Won't make me eat them any more (or less) than I do now tbh.

I never notice the ads.

I think their happy meal toy exploits children. And parents. It's landfill fodder and a perfect example of the kind of acquisitive, throwaway consumerism that we're always banging on about.

On which note, McDonalds as an entity has a particular symbolism: environmental rapaciousness, exploitation, corporate greed, US cultural imperialism etc. Whether you agree these are fair or not, that symbolism should be considered. Goes beyond whether we as individuals (boden-wearing or otherwise) feed our kids that shoit, I think.

Will put us on a par with - well, every other ad-funded corporate site, which may be fine, or may not.

Lindsay, I loathe McDs. But what you've said doesn't make them any different from other conventional retailers. Also it's hardly 'exploitation' when we as parents have a clear choice. One could argue that children, being so vulnerable to advertising, are the ones who are exploited, but then it's our job as parents to teach them to make wise decisions about shite food and faddy marketing.

That's an interesting point Lindsay. I had been thinking that McD no worse, really, than say Tesco, for marketing junk food, eroding the non-commercial sphere by exporting consumerist values into every activity, etc. But your suggestion is that McD's symbolic status (which it doubtless has) as the quintessence of these ills should be taken into account.

I think I disagree, on balance, because an advert is so explicitly and frankly a paid-for, external and manipulative space: it doesn't try insidiously to be part of the conversation in the way that advertisers and other manipulators often do by worming their way into the actual talk-space.

I don't really mind what happens around the edges of Talk so long as it stays outside. And, lets face it, MN is an ad-funded corporate site, isn't it?

I have all ads blocked. I didn't for a long time as I saw them as a part of what supports MN. The final straw was noisy adverts though & now I have a lovely ad free MN (thanks Google Chrome)

However if I hadn't already done it seeing a Mcdonalds ad would probably make me iyswim.

Out of interest can you see when someone does have ads blocked & if so do you report that to advertisers?

I use AdBlock Plus, so go right ahead because I won't see it.

Those McD ads with rosy-faced children on a farm show how advertising tries to undermine oppositional voices or themes by simply colonising them: we hate McD for being overprocessed, unnatural, envoronmentally costly so they just brazenly make an ad with images of natural wholesome unprocessedness simply to lay claim on oppositional territory.

It is a kind of imperialist expansionism, converting everything outside of itself to more of itself. So I think the key thing is to barricade advertisers into their clearly paid-for advert spaces and not led them co-opt oppositional spaces by gaining admission. I hated, e.g., the Asda thread for that reason, where we were asked to make responses about their participation in Let Girls Be Girls. It makes the Mumsnet voice part of the advert instead of an external space.

leroy so Im not the only one then , I was feeling very lonely for a while. lol

Don't care, I see nothing wrong with a McDonalds although I prefer Burger King and KFC. Everything in moderation.