The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce recently issued a statement that it’s severing all ties to McDonald’s, but it’s not because they turn away transgender job applicants, because they scream “faggots” at gay patron or even because their food tastes like microwaved cardboard. Rather, it’s because the gay ad running in France portrays the company as LGBT friendly, when they’re not really… well, not in America anyway.
In a letter they’ve since pulled from their site, the NGLCC called the French ad “blatant geographic pandering to the LGBT community… while McDonald’s has continued to distance itself from the LGBT segment in the United States. To allow people to believe that McDonald’s is the kind of partner portrayed in this ad would be a complete failure on our part to serve as an honest and trusted resource for LGBT people and our families to help make informed decisions in the marketplace.”
McDonald’s once faced an anti-gay boycott from the so-called American Family Association for making a contentious donation to the NGLCC. They have also acknowledged gay sluts in their American print advertising, so it’s not fair to call the company flat out anti-gay; but that’s not what the NGLCC is saying. They’re saying that the Fry Kids are nowhere near as gay friendly as their ad would like you to believe and that the NGLCC would rather have nothing to do with Micky D’s than help contribute to the illusion that they are progressively gay friendly.
NGLCC issued their statement before McDonald’s COO made his horrible promise never to release gay friendly ads in the US, but his statement merely proved their point. B-Net writer Carol Tice summed up the issue thus: “It’s a cautionary tale on what can happen when a company doesn’t back up their marketing position with real action in stores and in the community. A company can’t really position itself as a little gay-friendly, but only around the edges.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Ted B.
Yeah, the local McD’s is right across the street from my office; but after the flap over the “French ad” and the unwelcome comments of McD’s COO Don Thompson, “I Just Not Lovin’ It” anymore. They’ll need to make some substantive changes before they get my $20 to $30-a-week again.
tjr101
I can proudly say I’ve never been much into Mickey D’s with the exception of having one of their milkshakes on a hot summer day.
Having said that, the decision not to air the gay friendly ad in the US is strictly a business wise decision. France does not have a rabid Christian Taliban population that would protest anything remotely gay friendly as you would find here in the US.
McDonalds is more than willing to piss of the gay population if it keeps the millions of overweight Christian fundamentalists at bay.
Lanjier
I don’t agree with the decision to sever all ties; it seems ruthless and extreme. McDonald’s did run a gay-positive ad in France. That they did not also run the ad here – yet – does not make them harmful to the gay community, it makes them moving in the correct direction. What sense does it make to try to shame an international corporation that is moving in our direction, albeit, not moving fast enough?
The are stretching their credibility and effectiveness with such an intemperate, king baby, bratty over-reaction. I want a mature response to represent the gay community, not that of a fourteen-year-old girl who runs up to her room, slams the door and stuffs her face in a pillow.
reason
As I stated before, McDonald’s mistake was not playing it safe and playing that ad in France. Everyone on here can admit if they had not played that ad welcoming gays nobody would be talking about them, and they would be going on with business as usual with Ted B spending his 20 to 30 dollars a week. Instead they have both angry gay people and angry homophobic people. I will say though, by attacking them it is sending a strong message, that they already should have known, just keep your nose out of it even if you love gays. Now that the COO has opened his mouth, they are inhibited from coming up with some off the cuff excuses. That COO should have said if cornered, I don’t control the advertising at McDonald’s but if your hungry your welcome at our stores.
FrankLeeMyDear
@Lanjier: I don’t agree with the decision to sever all ties; it seems ruthless and extreme. McDonald’s did run a gay-positive ad in France.
So, we should only order French Fries when at McDonalds?
Ephram
mcdonlads shouldve known that we are in an age of youtube. i’m guessing that they did know. theyre smart business people. so to cast them as evil is just not completely right. they excelled in france…and mcdonalds is truly a global brand…so they mustve known america would pick up on it in this global digitalized age.
Ted B.
If it had been just the “French ad”, I’d have let it slide since it’s from an ad-campaign in a foreign market. You can’t just drop an outside-idea TV-spot in at-random into a carefully-orchestrated, preplanned campaign.
But the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce has been having real cooperation-problems with McDonald’s at the corporate-level for some time…McD’s reps. promising one-thing and McD’s not delivering, or doing the opposite. And Thompson’s remark’s to the Chicago Tribune were just the icing on the cake.
Do I HAVE TO do business with stupid people…NO. I haven’t bought gas willingly at EXXON since the Valdez spill, with MOBIL since they yanked their gay benefits…and now with BP and McD’s.
I’ll take my dollars elswhere, thank-you-very-much.
Zach
“They have also acknowledged gay sluts in their American print”
Heh heh heh.
reason
@Ted B.: Ted you may not think your buying gas at these places, but they sell gas under different names. BP delivers over 60% of U.S. gas, cut out Exxon and Citgo depending on where you live there may not be anything left. Boycotting BP will do nothing to hurt the company, gas is a global product with high demand. If they can’t sell gas here they will sell it somewhere else and more gas will come here from Venezuela or some other undesirable place. The only people that are hurt by boycotts are the hard working local people that own those gas stations.
counterpoll
@Zach: “Gay sluts” my favorite error this week. Lots of typos, factual errors & mistakes in judgement. Wonder why the other LGB blogs struggle much less that here?
I’m sure starting to believe in all those rumours of The Q___ty home office being a hothouse of drugs and drinking and constant replaying of Waxy Davey videos on the the ceiling? And something to do with a lifesize doll of Pezhead Hurlton.
counterpoll
p.s. Sorry– I really need to proofead better. I’m not a journalist, so yes I make errors when typing! I don’t have an editor, spellcheck, an assiatat or adderall, either.
I’m off to look for more gay sluts….
milessilverberg
@tjr101: It’s one thing to decide not to air a gay-friendly ad in America; that’s McDonalds’ choice. That’s not the problem here; the problem is the COO shooting his mouth off at how not deciding to air such an ad in the U.S. coincides with his company’s “core values,” which he seems to think are an extension of his Christian beliefs.
He’s the one who claimed that it’s not a business decision, but a moral judgement on his and his company’s part. And he does have to answer for that, not only to GLBT customers and partners, but to his very secular and pragmatic board of directors.
Queer Supremacist
Let McDonald’s pander to the breedergoyim. Let them be the ones to gain 400 pounds, die early, and triple health care costs while we superior gays eat good food in normal portion sizes. You could have an ad where Ronald McDonald takes it up the ass bareback from the Hamburglar while sucking off Grimace and I still wouldn’t eat there. Life’s too short to eat bad food.
If you’re strapped for time and you need mediocre food that’s fast and cheap, go eat at the Subway, darling. It’s not drowning in putrid grease that’s totally unfit for anal lube.