Dead Dad Ad pulled by McDonalds

McDonald's has decided to withdraw its latest TV advert, which was criticised for exploiting childhood bereavement.

The fast food giant had already apologised for "upset" caused by the advert, first aired on 12 May. It features a boy who struggles to find something in common with his dead father until he goes to McDonald's.

A spokeswoman for McDonald's said the British advert will be removed from all media this week and it will review its creative process to avoid a repeat.

"It was never our intention to cause any upset," read the statement."We are particularly sorry that the advert may have disappointed those people who are most important to us - our customers.

"Due to the lead-times required by some broadcasters, the last advert will air on Wednesday 17 May. "We will also review our creative process to ensure this situation never occurs again."

'Countless' complaints

The campaign, from London-based advertising agency Leo Burnett, had been scheduled to run for seven weeks.

In the advert, the boy asks his mum about his absent dad, sparking some reminiscence.
The boy is left to wonder whether he and his father had anything in common, until he arrives at a McDonald's restaurant and orders a Filet-O-Fish and the mother says: "That was your dad's favourite too."





Bereavement charity, Grief Encounter, had "countless calls" from parents saying their bereaved children had been upset by the advert.
The Advertising Standards Authority also said it had received complaints and would "carefully assess them to see whether there are grounds to investigate".

Very bizarre, wonder who thought that up.

"that was your dad's favourite too"

Last thing you'd want to do after watching a morbid advert about a dead man who used to have a favourite mcdonalds meal...is take yourself off to mcdonalds and buy one.

SH, I unfortunately have known the 20 somethings who dream up this garbage, unfortunately they do NOT occupy the same place in the world as you and me. They are devoid of empathy.

Typical Corporate c**ts - thinking only of their own insular interests and of their great god greed - along with a consequent obedience to their brand, and to nothing else.

Thank goodness I have never been in, ever had, nor ever will have, a Macd.

Same for all the other fast food  rubbish, aswell.

I could write pages on this stuff, buts what is the point.

onlooker......snap......only the young and foolish buy this sh**te. Can we educate otherwise............no feckin chance.

Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead Ad?

Love the comment on you tube
"There should have been a final shot of the lad placing an extra value meal on his grave"

^

so compared to your wonderful dad your completely useless but there is a chink of light shining through, your dad loved the same sh!t food as you

The person who devised that up should be given a job at Eastenders, the person who let it get to the stage of reaching the screens needs sacking.

nothing wrong with it, shouldn't have been withdrawn.

Agree  ,what people would have for a Meal often Mentioned by bereaved families ,I thought it was a Nice advert ..

My dear old dad wouldn't have been seen dead in Mickey D's

However, if the advert was for fish and chips from Caleb's then things would be different.

Jaw dropping stuff right enough.

Leaving aside the faux outrage from people who don't like McDonalds, what is the actual complaint? Haven't their been adverts based on dead parents in the past? I vaguely recall the line, "Aye, she was a good-looking woman, your mum," although I can't think what the product was. And isn't there the humorous suggestion that the mother is making up the stuff about dressing smartly and polishing his shoes?

Absolutely incredible that was ever released, insensitive and crass beyond words. Whoever thought that up and got the go ahead needs to hang their heads in shame. A complete and utter disgusting piece of advertising. I wouldn't eat McDonalds if it were free, rubbish food for the chavs. Obesity is rife here in my neck of the woods, never seen so many fat people adults and schoolkids alike in my entire life.

when someone starts lecturing about something like this, something within me begins to laugh, and jeer.

Why?

well I liked the advert, and don`t trust the reasons for people being so outraged.

Well lfc1971, we'll have to agree to disagree on this. I thought the reasoning behind this advertising campaign was absolutely hideous. Just my opinion of course.

why?

hmmm, perhaps someone can give an answer? I don't know

"The Advertising Standards Authority also said it had received complaints and would "carefully assess them to see whether there are grounds to investigate"

Has there ever been a more self important bunch of leaches than this bunch?

WTF has it got to do with them?

The kids Father has just passed away and the Mum comforts him by him eating a fillet 'O' fish and saying that was his Dad's "favourite". Come on man, rubbish, fattening food and a very ill thought out advertising campaign. It wouldn't have been pulled by the suits otherwise would it?

The juxstaposition of content and purpose is very jarring for me.

Especially if you have no idea what it is for originally and then you see the 'twist ending'

As i was watching it

1. Look this poor kid's dad died young
2. And he actually has no memory of his dad
3. And now he is concerned that he will never be worthy of his dad .....

At this point i felt the 4th stage of the ad would be him being revealed to do something his dad couldn't do maybe and then hugging his mum and a caption like 'cancer affects us ll ...please donate..'

But no

4. Get down to Mcdonalds and buy a Filet-O-Fish !

It is just very , very crass.

I thought Pumphol's comment comparing it to Eastenders scriptwriting was perceptive because it has that same mawkishness without empathy as you get in soap writing . Alot of people do like shyte like Eastenders and Corrie and so this will have it's defenders too.

can`t follow that, I think the reason it was pulled was because of people getting outraged..its a commercial decision
but about what?
that was the question.
why?

To be fair to the turds who dreamt this shyyte up, their target audience are as lacking in sensibility as they are.

I hope you don't want corrie and eastenders banned as well.

Sorry; forgot midgets..

it was well acted, who could deny that?

I never said i wanted anything banned i just think it is a dreadful ad

It's not been banned anyway , McDonalds execs pulled the plug on it

yes, that's all good then

I would have liked to see it on tv. its a good thing for people to watch imo

There's one in the US at the moment centred around a family (including Granny) taking Grandad's ashes urn around a tour of the US and ends with them scattering said ashes in the Pacific to a soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel's "America".

Advertising the car they're travelling in.

Maybe not to everyone's taste, but I suspect if the UK one wasn't for McDonalds, nobody would be complaining.

that's how things look like in our cities.

very beautiful add room 0182, and a very beautiful song.

I'd ban every single 'soap' from TV. including the kids ones. Ye have generations of peeps who think Dot Branning and Hilds Ogden are 'Feminist heroes'


The worlds gone fecking mad but hey, don't worry 'Enders' is on tonight...........

As I said the worst part of the ad was the kid  not matching up to his dad in any way UNTIL  he ate a MacDonald's  fillet of Fish, that was just totally pathetic.

remember watching a history of coronation street, and some in black and white footage.writing and acting superb. there was an episode from a long time ago it showed ena sharples in the pub reminiscing  about starting work in a factory at the age of 14, and the way she described the pathos and hope and fear, everything about that time in her life.
it was as good as anything by Olivier, or Alan Bennett

Maybe so. But unfortunately that era has passed us by in both 'soapland' and life itself.

Now in soaps ye can have the pleasure of watching shows about wimmins periods, lesbianism, rape, murder, incest, and fudge packing...


And that's just the kids 'soaps'....

agree with tobes, pumphol and Slippy on this

but in this post-Diana era

where on TV shows sob stories are more important than talent, what else can we expect?

It was rather crass but there's been far worse. What about Sainsburys using the trauma of the WW1 trenches to flog a few chocolate bars a few years back or John Lewis's man on the moon ad depicting a lonely old man staring into space. How that must have hit home to thousands in the same position especially at Christmas. A lot of snobbism involved here (if thats a word) because it's Macdonalds.

agree with tobes, pumphol and Slippy on this


Quelle surprise!

I agree with cannyman..



Quelle surprise!

And the worst of all was of course the Paddy Power one with the cat being kicked across the pitch by the blind football player.

Cheers guinness my old mate.

Its Crap Food Agreed But Kids Like it, hardly Do any harm an Odd Visit ,Parents take their Kids There ,try to get into one During School Holidays ,I do not see a Problem ,when we Go out for meals sadly People are Missing Should it be an Indian Or Chinese You know what the Person would have Ordered ,Tbh if I lost My partner I would hardly Give Fck what Adverts were on TV .

Why anyone would be Screaming about this advert is Beyond Belief ..

Most Parents have attended a Macs with their Kids ..

couldn't stand those ads either, Canny

Nor me Thomas.

there was a time when there were a lot of decent ads

Guinness
Cadburys
etc

These days most are horrendous

Zoopla and the estate agent type ads are all toe curling

Did the boys dad have a burger van on that pitch before mcD rolled into town ,refused to yield and was fed to the pigs ? Or did he work at mcD and died of mad cow disease ,could not find his mouth and kept hitting his chin with the burger ? Can't work that add out at all

PP ads are dire.

Whatever happened to the girls in the bounty adverts ?

diabetes, overweight .. maybe gaga

terrific ads well suited to the time.


The McDonalds advert was schmaltzy, ill-conceived and  just wrong.

May 17, 2017 -- 8:10PM, guinness2dear wrote:

Was there any blacks, gingers, four eyes or gay disabled innit?

Guessing this is why it was pulled, none of the above ,well spotted Guinness...................

Thank you, here to help..

The PP adds make me embarrassed to be Irish..

you're welcome

Yeah G2D, among the worst ever adds.

Unfortunantly, I think McDonalds have already got what they were after...which is much more free advertising than any run-of-the-mill advert would have given them. Seems their purpose was to have a banned advert, wouldn't be the first to pull the trick.

Best ad ever and no expense spared either.
Bing Crosby and We're going Shell.
Word has it that it's Foxy with the reins on the horse-drawn cart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSiCeJpLhSk

Great days aka.

aka' is not as dumb as he looks

kenny mann
16 Sep 10 23:00
Joined: 29 Apr 10
| Topic/replies: 33,426 | Blogger: kenny mann's blog
best ad since Bing Crosby was advertising Shell in the 60's, and youtube didn't let me down.

7 years! wtf!

May 17, 2017 -- 8:09PM, boxingthefox wrote:

To be fair to the turds who dreamt this shyyte up, their target audience are as lacking in sensibility as they are.

Many of modern society's problems stem from the proliferation of advertising.

Emotive ads (designed to tug on heartstrings)
Cartoon ads (pretending the product actually does something, by way of stupid animation - especially cosmetics)
Poetry ads (Just fecking annoying)
Bad music ads (usually a reedy voiced girl singing weakly over just a guitar)
Voiceover ads (The -usually young women- hypervoiced, over excitable and chalk-on-a-blackboard loud babble)
Multi-racial family ads (very 'in' at the moment)
and so many others.

I would get all advertising companies in a big group and close the lot down and put all their staff into labour camps for 20 years.
And the Saatchis would get life in solitary.

strange how potent cheap music is.

Noel Coward said that.
"go to work on an egg" he didn't say that, it was some other great writer.

just checked, it was Salmon Rushdie

if he had stuck to advertising maybe he would have been sentenced to 20 years in a labour camp instead of death?

I thought 'Filet O' Fish' was an Irish weatherman.

anyone can be an Irish weatherman, its always raining..a grand soft day

Bob Dylan invented the word weatherman in one of his songs.