[mr.miyagi]

http://blogs.download.com/Sonic-Soup/

It's been a rough few years for the fast-food industry, McDonald's in particular. First the burger chains were publicly blamed for all sorts of health woes, including diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, and obesity.
Then, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock took direct aim at the Golden Arches with the award-winning and stomach-turning documentary Super Size Me. So how does McDonald's aim to improve its street cred with the hip, youthful demographic? Paying rappers to rhyme about Big Macs, that's how.

I guess this shouldn't have shocked me, although I still had to read it twice before I believed it. According to this AdAge article passed on by my colleague Karen Whitehouse (mad props to her), McDonald's has hired a marketing firm to seek out hip-hop artists willing to shill the Big Mac for cash. The rapper must simply name-drop the sandwich in a song, then Ronald and company will toss them $1 to $5 each time the track is played on the radio.

Sure, rappers mention product names in songs all the time, mostly brands of cars, clothes, and booze that are synonymous with the " urban lifestyle." Business is business, but something about this seems way more insidious and sickening to me. I mean, the aforementioned marketing firm isn't even trying to hide the fact that this ploy is geared directly toward the youthful demographic, even as obesity rates among children skyrocket. Direct quote from Maven Strategies CEO Tony Rome: “Hip-hop’s endorsement of different brands give them a cool factor and representation among youth. They gain credibility by being mentioned in songs.” Hardly surprising, but audacious nonetheless.

Corporations have been meddling with the integrity of artists ever since they figured out that music sells product, so I don't know why this instance has gotten me so bent out of shape. To me, I guess it just seems like McDonald's have already done enough to corrupt the health of an entire country. Must they befoul our CD collections, too? In my mind, any "artists" who agree to this fast-buck scheme are no better than the people putting them up to it. But I'm sure Mickey D's will have no shortage of takers.


Personally this doesn't surprise me one bit but I do still feel sick when I hear of things like this....
plzdie: Maccy D's
[img]http://www.americandigest.org/mt-archives/ronaldcrimespree-thumb.jpg[/img]