mikao's world

Steppin' It Up

On May 11th McDonald's Restaurants of Canada followed other McDonald's restaurants around the world and introduced "Canadians to McDonald’s new line of entrée salads. The salads (are) part of McDonald’s Canada’s new saladsplus™ menu category..." (source here). These salads are the ones featured as part of McDonald's new Go Active!™ Happy Meal®s.

In order to promote their new salad line and Go Active! Happy Meals, McDonald's has been running a television commercial for the past couple of weeks advertising a free Stepometer that measures the number of steps you walk. According to their site, while supplies last, when you purchase a New Chicken Caesar Salad, New Bacon Ranch Salad, New Fiesta Salad, or a Chicken Oriental Salad, and a bottle of Dasani® water or a medium drink, you will receive a Stepometer™ and a Step With It!™ booklet. The booklet was developed by Oprah's personal trainer Bob Greene, and includes a description of his walking program.

The stepometer has even birthed a new blogging meme of sorts.

The commercial that promotes the free stepometer, and ultimately the purchase of the salads, features shot after shot of different women walking.

The t-shirts feature the following slogans:

* Put the Pedal to the Medal

* Giddy-Up

* Outta My Way Jose

* Shake Your Boots

* My Pace or Yours?

* You Go-Go-Go Girl

Seeing this advertisment reminded me of cpyu's recent article, Double Take: Apparel That Speaks. While the t-shirt slogans used in the McDonald's advertisement are not as extreme as some of the ones in Doug West's article, the placement of the camera more than makes up for that.

The advertisement only features shots of women from just around their lip or chin area to slightly below their waistline (to which the step-o-meter is fastened of course).

There are only women featured in the McDonald's ad. And, it is not until the last woman walking is shown that we see a face. Before that, we see mostly chest area. And, the placement of the camera draws the attention of the viewer to the chest area. Sure you're supposed to be reading the slogan, but that's not all you are seeing, that's not all your attention is directed towards.

McDonald's current slogan is "I'm Lovin' It." I'm not loving your ad, McDonald's. I find it offensive.