Commercial showing teenagers driving deemed too offensive

[monaroCountry]

McDonald's ad made a meal of driving safety

Christine Sams

December 2, 2007

A McDONALD'S advertisement showing a carload of male teenagers ordering a drive-through meal is off the air after an investigation by an industry watchdog.

The advertisement, which shows a P-plater who drives his friends to the fast food restaurant after getting his licence, will not be screened again following claims it promoted unsafe driving.

After airing between November 4 and 12 it was investigated by the Advertising Standards Bureau.

"I think it was one of the most complained about for the month,"Advertising Standards Bureau chief executive officer Fiona Jolly said.

"The complaints made about this ad were that it depicted young boys driving in a manner that wasn't safe. The board noted that a carload of kids in the middle of the day isn't illegal but the board felt that the depiction of the kids really was contrary to all the public safety messages that are out there at the moment to young men on safe driving and safe behaviour in cars. They really felt that this was an ad that did breach the code."

A McDonald's spokeswoman said it was a short-run campaign, with the advertisement only scheduled to screen between those dates in November.

But it will never air again because of the ruling. McDonald's voluntarily follows the code of ethics set by the standards bureau.

In NSW it is illegal for P-platers to carry more than one peer-aged passenger between 11pm and 5am. The McDonald's campaign shows the carload of teenage boys in daylight, but the complaints flowed in to the Advertising Standards Bureau.

"We are killing more people every year on our roads yet McDonald's is promoting having fun behind the wheel, regardless if you can drive with any degree of real experience and confidence. It is just sending the absolute wrong message to our youth," wrote one complainant.

Another said: "I am appalled … I feel this ad should never have been allowed to go to air."

In defence of its advertisement, McDonald's filed a written submission that detailed its research for the campaign. "We also deliberately included a scene within the commercial where the mother voices 'Be careful' to her son upon handing her keys to him," said the McDonald's submission.

The Advertising Standards Bureau ruled the advertisement breached Section 2.6 of the Advertisers Code, because it contradicted prevailing community standards of health and safety.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/mcdona...6394682307.html

[mustang84]

Please tell me they're kidding.

[Intrepidation]

So...a bunch of people driving, safely, to get some fast food is deemed offense? It may be unhealthy (like I care), but it its not offense. GO f@#k OFF YOU ANAL RETENTIVE POLITICALLY CORRECT PUSSIES!!!

[FAPTurbo]

Why can't these people go help build schools in Africa, or assist the disabled or something, instead of sitting on their asses, and picking apart TV commercials looking for "offensive" material?...

[PurdueGuy]

I could only think of one thing while I read that...

DUUUURRRRRRR!

[ellives]

So...a bunch of people driving, safely, to get some fast food is deemed offense? It may be unhealthy (like I care), but it its not offense. GO f@#k OFF YOU ANAL RETENTIVE POLITICALLY CORRECT PUSSIES!!!

Ditto. It's time people stood up to these idiots and told them to crawl back into the holes they crawled out from.

It's about personal accountability people!

This *really* feels a lot like the news story I heard this week about some morons getting department stores to tell their "Santas" to stop saying "Ho Ho Ho!" and start saying "Ha Ha Ha!" ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?

Edited December 3, 2007 by ellives

[Camino LS6]

So...a bunch of people driving, safely, to get some fast food is deemed offense? It may be unhealthy (like I care), but it its not offense. GO f@#k OFF YOU ANAL RETENTIVE POLITICALLY CORRECT PUSSIES!!!

This post should be quoted and spread around the world over and over until these PC idiots shut their mouths.

Utter Stupidity.

[pow]

Before you guys get all riled up by an agitator, there is not a mention of the word "offensive" anywhere in that linked article. This has nothing to do with "political correctness" - it doesn't cause offense to racial, cultural, or other identity groups.

[Robert Hall]

Maybe the real issue here is that Aussie kids shouldn't be eating McDonalds...eating American sh*t fast food will turn them into obese turds like American kids...

[Camino LS6]

Before you guys get all riled up by an agitator, there is not a mention of the word "offensive" anywhere in that linked article. This has nothing to do with "political correctness" - it doesn't cause offense to racial, cultural, or other identity groups.

An "agitator" ?

Pretty narrow definition political correctness you have there. The label on it is unimportant, but the mindset is the same.

And disgusting.

[pow]

An "agitator" ?

Pretty narrow definition political correctness you have there. The label on it is unimportant, but the mindset is the same.

And disgusting.

Yeah, I just cut-and-pasted it from Wikipedia (the "political correctness" definition). I'm with you in that I don't mind the ad; it's just that without such a title, I have a feeling these replies would be rather different.

And I'm not saying monaroCountry made it up; it appears to have come from different forums, likely designed to generate some outraged responses.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/misce...-offensive.html

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3572658

Edited December 4, 2007 by empowah

[Camino LS6]

Yeah, I just cut-and-pasted it from Wikipedia (the "political correctness" definition). I'm with you in that I don't mind the ad; it's just that without such a title, I have a feeling these replies would be rather different.

And I'm not saying monaroCountry made it up; it appears to have come from different forums, likely designed to generate some outraged responses.

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/misce...-offensive.html

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3572658

Well, in that case it worked - and I'm glad it did. The more people outraged at the excesses of this kind of thing the better.

[Intrepidation]

This is the same BS as that they don't want Santa to be a Jolly fat man because "he saids the wrong message to children"

They're saying this commercial is bad. All teenagers drive like retards and how dare they do something otherwise. Shame on them. This of course is brought to you buy the same assholes who can't use their turn signals and ride your ass down the road.

Edited December 4, 2007 by Dodgefan

[pow]

Well, in that case it worked - and I'm glad it did. The more people outraged at the excesses of this kind of thing the better.

The outrage should have been directed at plain old stupidity than political correctness, IMO.

[thegriffon]

??? The guy drives badly (he has trouble parallel parking and stops too far from the drive-thru window—that's it) because he just got his license. The point of the ad is "Dudes, I passed, let's go to Maccas and celebrate!" They're not drinking, they're not speeding, they're not hooning around. They're sitting in a car eating drive-thru burgers because they've never been able to do that by themselves before. What kind of stick up the butt thought-police would think it inappropriate?

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

Before you guys get all riled up by an agitator, there is not a mention of the word "offensive" anywhere in that linked article. This has nothing to do with "political correctness" - it doesn't cause offense to racial, cultural, or other identity groups.

Sure it does...

This is the definition of political correctness... A group of self righteuos people bitching about the actions of others (A.k.a. telling others how to live their lives) until the 'others' are beaten into submission.

It's always about someone getting offended or having their feelings hurt, otherwise there would never be an issue. But instead of being in touch with reality and realizing that one can't always have it their way in life, (No pun intended) these spoiled 'do gooders' make it their hobby to "fix" the world into what the do gooders themselves deem is correct.

This is bull$h! and I think it's so funny. Hopefully our society is about sick of this sort of hysteria induced waste of time. And it is a waste of time when you consider the vast universe of problems we have that this energy could be spent on. But, for example, it's not easy to reduce black on black violence. However, it is easy to sit at home on your ass (Probably collecting some sort of government aid, to boot) and type angry messgaes about a 'big, evil corporation' and their 'lack of sensitivity when advertising'

Edited December 4, 2007 by FUTURE_OF_GM

[K.C.]

This has gone way too far. Kids do these all the time. What's the big deal?

[Drew Dowdell]

people need to get a life. I drove like an idiot as a kid, I didn't need a commercial from McDonalds to tell me to do it.

[VenSeattle]

people need to get a life. I drove like an idiot as a kid, I didn't need a commercial from McDonalds to tell me to do it.

What? When you first started driving a stick, you didn't think "Safety First?"

[Drew Dowdell]

There.... there is just no good response to that.