Friday, June 08, 2007

McNonsense

You’re not going to believe this, but McDonald’s is trying to keep a word long-associated with its business OUT of the American lexicon of contemporary usage:

McJob—which is often invoked to describe low-paying unskilled jobs. In fact, the Oxford Dictionary defines “McJob” as "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector."

But not if McDonald’s can help it.
They want the word tossed-out.
Expunged.
Deleted.
McCancelled.

I think there is more to this than just hypersensitivity about labels and public perceptions. Ray Kroc may be spinning in his grave with the knowledge his McMega-prolific hamburger stands have been equated with dead-end jobs.

But the franchise owners of successful McDonald’s restaurants would argue otherwise, as would shareholders of McDonald’s stock, which has consistently outperformed the S&P 500 for the past year.

What we are witnessing instead is another episode of corporate denial of reality—an unstoppable force meeting an inconvenient truth. So in the twisted words of Albert Einstein, “when the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts…" or in this case, the dictionary.

McDonald’s can’t refute the social phenomenon that flipping burgers is a gritty, greasy job, but somebody’s gotta do it, and because more than a billion McDonald’s burgers have been flipped, the McLabel has stuck.

So if Mickey-D’s could just get McJob removed from the dictionary, would the unsavory image go away?
Can reality be McAltered just by refusing to recognize its existence?

I think it’s McChicken nuggets.

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