I love gender stereotypes

anachronism — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:10:59 -0500

I think my favorite part of all of this is that the girls get Polly Pockets. Do you know what I DIDN'T have when I was little? Oh, yeah, Polly Pockets. But do you know what I DID have? Oh, yeah, Matchbox cars.

Sara
silent-cacophony.net

McDonalds is McQuiet on McHummer Promotion

Elana Centor — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 05:59:29 -0500

So far McDonalds hasn't responded to criticism of the 42 million mini hummers--in 8 models and colors-- they are giving away in Happy Meals in the Hummer of a Summer Promotion. BTW, the girls get Polly Pockets.

Thanks to Ronald McHummer Sign-o-Matic website, you can tell McDonalds exactly what you think of the promotion. So far 74,000 signs have been created. You can also vote on your favorite sign.

The promotion is fast becoming a case of viral marketing gone bad.

According Jennifer Laycock , editor of the Search Engine Guide :

It happens every now and then...viral marketing takes off, but not in the direction that the company at its center would hope. This time around, McDonald's seems to be on the losing end. John Gartner over at Marketing Shift had written just this week about McDonald's plans to partner with GM in order to give away mini-Hummers in Happy Meals. Now Gartner had a good point in that Hummer drivers aren't really the typical McDonalds' customer, so it seemed like an odd promotion.

Then came today's post, which talks about how things have progressed since then, especially on the viral marketing front. Enter "Ronald McHummer," a site that allows users to create their own McDonalds sign with their choice of smarmy saying that other site visitors can then vote on. The site has already been featured on Digg and in the New York Times and is happily buzzing it's way around the net thanks to blogs and discussion forums.

McDonalds may be McMum but McMarketingShift has lots to say.

unless Merck starts marketing Vioxx as a euthanasia drug, this is the hands-down winner of the MarketingShift Marketing Disaster of the Year Award. (Chevy's make your own Tahoe commercial is a distant second)...

With high gas prices, and the success of Super Size Me, the timing couldn't have been worse for these two companies to get together.

THen there is Grist Magazine which writes in As Words Fail Us

Sometimes a story comes along that so perfectly captures a culture's pathologies that it should be put in a time capsule, so future generations ... oh, right, there won't be any future generations.....Charlie Miller of Environmental Defense thinks it's kind of a bummer of a summer: "Anything that sends a message to kids that these are the cool vehicles to buy is the wrong message." At today's prices, it costs about $96 to fill up the gas tank of a Hummer H2 -- but don't worry, a double cheeseburger's only a buck.

Image Credit Marc Sirkin of npMarketing blogwho created the sign.

Elana Blogs on business culture at FunnyBusiness

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I love gender stereotypes

McDonalds is McQuiet on McHummer Promotion