McDonald's

Okay okay okay, I cave.

I like fast food, maybe a little too much.

If you guys watched my previous video, you might have noticed me mentioning Mr. Donut. I love Mr. Donut; I wish they had such things back in the states. The little donuts look like works of art, and considering the quality, most of them don't get higher than 140 yen, a bargain for the experience. I can have coffee and a little snack for less than 5 dollars usually.

And Mr. Donut is an enormous chain, which means I can find it pretty much everywhere. Again, to site the video; inside of a train station, on the street, in super markets, everywhere.

But this blog is not about Mr. Donut, no no no.

This is about McDonald's.

I also happen to enjoy McDonald's. As any business majors might know, they key to an internationally successful operation is to adapt to the culture. McDonald's has don this rather well, with distinct menu items depending on the country. McDonald's also only uses "local" food sources and factories of production, so I've been told.

But McDonald's marketing is a little... rough on the edges. I won't talk about 365black (McDonald's somewhat racist campaign for black employees), but instead I'd like to talk about their Japanese campaign.

Specifically, Nippon All Stars, and Mr. James.

A quick note: My friend Josh told showed me this on facebook before I arrived, props go to him.

Mr. James is McDonald's new mascot in Japan, and he's here to show us some new sandwiches! Ooooooh. He looks something like this:


Think of it as a new Ronald McDonald. Except he's a nerdy white American male who speaks terrible Japanese.

Seriously.

Now... I don't want to pull a race card... but I see cardboard cutouts of this guy EVERYWHERE. Is this not a little messed up? It seems to be playing on what the stereotype of an American in Japan is. Who is this marketing directed to? American tourists?

I'll just make a brief comparison. If we had a new noodle dish in American McDonald's, wouldn't it be messed up if "Ching Chong China-man" were the mascot, and he spoke like "Ree rearry rike Noodaw"?

Because that's what Mr. James is equivalent to in Japan. Just a thought experiment for you all.

I just wish Teriyaki burgers weren't so damn tasty.