That McDonalds poem

It’s hard to imagine a French version of McDonald’s “Just passing by” commercial currently running on British (and some Irish) TV.

McDonalds is a huge global brand, with global icons such as the big yellow M, the Ronald McDonald clown and the “I’m lovin’ it” musical sting. But here’s an example of how it carefully tailors its advertising to a specific local market.

The poem in the TV commercial sounds so thoroughly English. It’s often mistaken for something by Liverpool poet Roger McGough or John Betjeman or even Alan Bennett, though it’s actually written by a couple of copywriters, in a blatant rip-off of an old Rolf Harris piece (“Now the ladies of the harem of the court of King Catactacus, were just passing by…”).

In fact it’s rare to see a TV ad nowadays where the copywriters have so much to do. They put the overall focus not on the fast food but on customers in a hurry – yet the copy also slips in various core products on the UK market (Big Mac, Coke, McNuggets, shakes, frothy coffees)…

Now the labourers and cablers and council motion tablers were just passing by.And the Gothy types and scoffy types and like-their-coffee-frothy types were just passing by.   Those on their own whilst on the phone dunking McNuggets and just having a moan were just passing by. The driving through with hungry crew who just pulled off the A32 were just passing by. And the IT bods with taps and prods eating a Big Mac while writing their blogs were just passing by.

And the first in types and lurking types and like to lose their gherkin types and suddenly-just-burst-in types were just passing by.   And the extroverts and introverts and guys in newly ironed shirts who like to text outrageous flirts were just passing by. And the little folk who share a joke who nudge and poke about that bloke who slurps his Coke and gives his goatee beard a stroke were just passing by. There’s a McDonald’s for everyone.

How does the poem McWork?

The very use of poetry, with its smooth and mesmerising rhymes, seems to hark back to an older time. Yet it also conjures up a thoroughly modern English world – of blogging, texting and the A32. It’s about modern life co-existing with rhythms from a previous age.

This “high-brow” poetry is delivered in a “low-brow” accent (by actor David Morrissey). Then there’s the payoff, which is completely low-brow and unpretentious: at the heart of everyday life, McDonalds is for everyone, all people.

All classes and social types are represented in this little world, from labourers to “IT bods”, a perfect microcosm of English “classless” society. As one reporter from the Huddersfield Daily Examiner concludes: “Maybe I have avoided them [McDonalds] in the UK because they are part of America’s colonisation of the world. But the new advert is so delightfully English I shall try them again.”

The music for the ad, by the way, is “The City” by composer Elmer Bernstein. It comes from Stephen Frears’s 1990 film “The Grifters”, about con artists in America (in this YouTube clip the McDonalds part of the theme comes about 45 seconds in).

McParodies

This 60-second poem is already talked about a lot, because people really love or hate it. When they love it, it’s because it is a pleasure to listen to and watch – a carefully crafted and unusual mix of poetry and visuals. And when they hate it, it’s because there’s something not quite right at the heart of it, if only you could put your finger on it.

It’s something to do with how McDonalds comes along and craps on everything from a great height, ruining wonderful old buildings the world over, reducing work to McJobs, making people obese, plundering resources and even exploiting poetry.

The love-hate relationship is already beginning to be reflected in the parodies, such as this rather weak and off-the-cuff one from Boards.ie:

“The people who are sick of this fcukin’ ad were just passing by..
The junkies and scumbags on O’ Connell St were just passing by…
The people who prefer the Whopper to the Big Mac were just passing by
The people who wanted to avoid the queues of Spanish students were just passing by
The people who wanted to taste decent chicken nuggets were just passing by…”

It’s only a matter of time before full-blown video piss-takes begin appearing on YouTube.