Video | A dead dad, a sad son, and a fish burger: is this the most emotionally manipulative McDonald’s ad ever?
McDonald’s has pulled its new advert from British TV screens and apologised for any upset caused after it was accused of exploiting childhood bereavement.
The advert, first screened last week, shows a boy asking his mother about his dead father. As she tells him what his dad was like, the boy looks sad as they do not seem to have much in common. But his face lights up once they arrive at a McDonald’s and, as he eats a Filet-O-Fish, his mother says: “That was your dad’s favourite too.”
Shelley Gilbert, a psychotherapist who founded the children’s bereavement charity Grief Encounter, said it had received a lot of phone calls from concerned parents.
She said: “What [McDonald’s] have done is exploited childhood bereavement as a way to connect with young people and surviving parents alike – unsuccessfully.
“One in 29 children are bereaved of a parent or sibling by the time they are 16 years of age, so this storyline will resonate with a huge number of children and surviving parents.
“We have already received countless phone calls this morning, with parents telling us their bereaved children have been upset by the advert and alienated by McDonald’s as a brand that wants to emotionally manipulate its customers.”
