The fast food restaurant chain McDonald's Japan is very popular and recognized for its ingenious marketing campaigns in Japan. A few years ago, they offered the chance to win a chicken carat made of 18-karat gold, and it wasn't the only crazy thing they could think of.
Recently, however, the fast food chain has been characterized in Japan by the production of animated commercials, and the most recent campaign was aimed at promoting McDonald's McShake shakes . Entitled "Forever, Love," the commercial follows a character from childhood to adulthood, with a McShake always by her side.
The commercial also allowed customers to know that McDonald's shakes will be available at reduced prices between July 1 and July 14, with small-sized shakes at 100 yen ($ 1) instead of 120 yen, and medium-sized shakes. at 150 yen instead of 200.
However, it was not the video that caused the controversy, but a rather unfortunate comment that the company's official Twitter account published, using a frame from the commercial, which says:
“ I try to suck as best I can, but the first time it won't come out so easy. Even when you grow up, the suction force remains the same. We've all had that experience, right? "
がんばってがんばって吸うけど、— マクドナルド (@McDonaldsJapan) July 11, 2020
なかなか出てこない、ひと口目。
成長したのに、吸引力は変わらなくって。
この経験、みんなにもありますよね？
7/14(火)まで…💓#マックシェイクS100円 #マックシェイクM150円 #ずっと好き pic.twitter.com/Fm5PXcLkcj
For a large part of Japanese users, these words and image were merely a reference to the consistency of the shake, which is very difficult to pass through the straw at first. However, another group of people was not able to understand the reference, leaving responses in the tweet like:
- " This is eroticism ."
- " The image appears to belong to the cover of a lolicon magazine ."
- " I don't understand the 'suction force' thing, isn't that from Dysons?" "
- " He looks like Hayate-chan from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ."
- " When I drink my McShakes, it reminds me of when I sucked on my mother's breasts ."
Although the last comment is quite disturbing, McDonalds Japan founder Den Fujita actually made the same connection between drinking a McShake and how babies breastfeed. The following quote comes from his book "Den Fujita's Business Strategies 2: Overwhelming Business Strategies":
" When humans drink something, the speed that produces the most delicious sensation is the speed at which babies breastfeed ... McDonald's straws are designed so that when used in a shake, the speed is the same as when a baby drink breast milk . "
Whether or not McDonald's wanted to remind people of the days when they were breastfeeding with this new animated commercial is a point of debate, but it certainly served its purpose: now everyone is talking about the McShakes, even us who don't even we are in Japan.
© McDonald's Japan
