McDonald's Advertising in Popular Culture
Advertisements of 2000s and 2010s
McDonald’s advertisements of the 2000s continued to use bandwagon techniques and celebrity endorsements to promote their product. One advertisement, published in 2003, was endorsed by the famous singer Justin Timberlake. This advertisement, titled “I’m Loving It” is based off a song written by Justin Timberlake. Timberlake’s video does not show anything that specifically relates to McDonald’s foods, but it does feature the longtime McDonald’s slogans “I’m lovin’ it" and “Bah Dah Buh Buh Buhhh”. McDonald’s also produced their own advertisement based on Timberlake’s song and even featured clips from Timberlake’s music video within the advertisement. In the McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” advertisement, which was also published in 2003, there are many types of people who all look like they are having a great time while eating their McDonald’s food and going about their everyday activities. The song in this advertisement states things such “I’m lovin’ it, is this the place to eat? Since I don’t cook I’ll just rock to the beat” to allow people to connect to McDonald’s. Most of the footage in the advertisement has people who are eating McDonald’s food while doing crazy and fun things, such as skateboarding, playing musical instruments and acting on a stage. By associating McDonald’s with various aspects of life, the audience is able to see McDonald’s as a type of food which can be enjoyed by anyone at any time. Everyone in the advertisement is always “lovin it”, which motivates the commercial’s audience to believe that they will also love it when they try it.
As McDonald’s advertising enters a new decade, fast food advertisers are facing many new challenges in promoting their food. The article “Beefed Up” by Jack Dickey discusses the problem that many fast food places are facing. In the article it discusses how fear of things such as mad cow disorder and obesity have caused America to graduate from “cheap burgers to better burgers.” The problem that McDonald’s is currently facing is that McDonald’s is not seen as particularly healthy, but is defined as the “cheap burger” that America is starting to turn away from. As a result, McDonald’s recently came up with a new advertising campaign and YouTube series known as “Our food. Your questions.” This advertising campaign produces videos that help to explain the processes that McDonald’s uses to produce their food. The campaign focuses on proving that even though McDonald’s food is cheap it can also be defined as natural. By allowing their consumers to ask questions about their food, McDonald’s not only showed that they care about their consumers, but also that they want them to be happy, healthy and safe when eating a Big Mac or McDonald’s French Fry.
McDonald’s advertisements have continuously evolved to meet the needs of their consumers from their beginning in the early 1960s to their advertisements of today. McDonald’s focus when advertising their food is effective not because they show that their food is amazing, but because they show that they care about people and the ideas that they have. As long as McDonald’s continues this approach when advertising their products, McDonald’s restaurants will always have a special place in the hearts of people in the United States and around the world.
