A new ad campaign trying to sell the French on eating hamburgers on American breads left a stale taste in the mouths of a couple critics.
Two ads for some limited-time burgers for McDonald’s France draw on the TV series “Baywatch” and “CHiPs.” A third ad features a burly hockey player, which one critic correctly notes is more closely associated with Canada than America.
What the ads lack is a punch line. If these were on TV in the U.S., someone would be tricked into giving up their hamburger or the hockey player would plow through the guy eating a burger in a library with an ice rink floor.
Paula Forbes writes on Eater.com:
The ads feature three separate Americans using their American wiles — sexiness, being loud, sports — to bully the French into giving up their hamburgers. . . . Anyway, bullying + shiny bread + police on motorocycles = America.
And L.V. Anderson says on Slate.com:
Perhaps the ads are a fitting tribute to the sandwiches they promote: Both are nonsensical amalgams of invented, or misunderstood, tidbits of American culture. Still, I can’t help but feel somewhat smug knowing that French creative directors can be just as oblivious and inept as their American counterparts.
Fails. RT @mattyglesias: French McDonalds tries to mock Americans: http://t.co/bjXqqT3FVN
— Slate (@Slate) December 18, 2013
Watch the ads for yourself on the Slate.com post “Cringeworthy French McDonald’s Ads Try, Fail to Poke Fun at Americans.”
Speaking of “cringeworthy,” don’t forget the Chicago Supreme Burger marketed earlier this year in the England. The sandwich was a beef patty topped with shredded lettuce, onion, cheese slices, spicy tomato salsa and mayo on a chili-chive-and-sesame-topped bun. Hmmm, can’t say I’ve ever eaten — or seen — a burger like that in the Chicago area.
Check out this video review of the burger: