Sunday, April 6, 2008

Can't make your mortgage payments? Try a double cheeseburger!

You may be familiar with the phrase "laugh to keep from crying," but this McDonald's ad seems curiously blasé about the national economic crisis, don't you think?



"The economy is in freefall! It's two dollars to every euro, the housing market is a wreck, we're headed for a recession... say, is that a one-dollar cheeseburger? Never mind!"

Obviously no one wants to be reminded by some random McDonald's ad of the sinking position of America in the world economy, but I don't know how smart the "Just kidding, everything's fine!" play is, even as a joke. The characters in this ad represent one of the key problems with American economics - the inability of people to see more than a few feet in front of them. "Well, if I can still get a cheeseburger for a dollar, things must not be that bad!" Or maybe McDonald's had costs of less than a dollar per cheeseburger to begin with (I certainly wouldn't be surprised), or maybe it's because they're a multinational corporation that makes billions of dollars a year. I'm not Alan Greenspan or anything, but I do know that I hate this commercial.

3 comments:

Quivering P. Landmass said...

"Once again the conservative sandwich-heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor!"

Andrew N.P. said...

Hey, think of it this way. Thanks to the meltdown of the American dollar, a McDonald's Double Cheeseburger is now cheaper than ever! Kudos to them for sticking to their guns, unlike (say) Wendy's, where the Super Value Menu is no longer the 99-cent Super Value Menu.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to stockpile gold and antidepressants.

Windier E. Megatons said...

With that in mind, they should really target that ad towards European vacationers. "Coming to America? Try the $1 double cheeseburger - I mean, what's that, 40 pence? God, it's great to be English right now!"