McDonald's: Gay Ad Won't Air in the U.S.

Well, as if we didn't see this one coming for some time. Two weeks ago, I wrote about how McDonald's in France was running an advertisement featuring a gay teen and his father.

At the time I opined "cause we all know an ad like this won't run in America, not only because it's about gays, but because it's a 48-second commercial." And now, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, the Golden Arches Chief Operating Officer, Don Thompson, confirms my original assumption.

Says the 47-year-old Thompson to the Tribune's Michael Oneal: "But, you're right, that commercial won't show in the United States."

Thompson buries the issue in a lot of mumbo-jumbo feel good speak. He blathers on about how he doesn't shy away from the fact he is a Christian who has traveled the world, setting foot in such "heathen" places as countries with atheist or Muslim majorities. But those travels have not phased good old Thompson, cause he is not "the judge or the jury relative to right or wrong."

But he also says such ads as the gay ad cause McDonald's corporate HQ to have some serious talks about how those ads will be perceived in other parts of the world. Sometimes, he says, they make mistakes infringing on cultural norms of one part of the world or another. Thus, the gay ad won't play in America, cause you know, it's not a cultural norm for teenagers to be gay and happy.

Funny, the folks at the CNSNews.com — a right wing news site — got their pants twisted back in 1999 because the company added sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policies. And good old Americans for Truth, that lovely hate group, threw a fit in 2008 because McD's got an 85 rating by the Human Rights Campaign (and no, I won't be linking to Porno Pete's blog, though if you want to find out why they call him Porno Pete, click here). The HRC's rating, however, also noted that McD's does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and/or expression.

Maybe someone forgot to explain that policy to Thompson in that diversity training program HRC touted in its Equality Index rating.

So I guess as a queer man, I can come as I am to the Golden Arches in France, but not in America.

Right. Got it. I could stand to lay off the fast food anyway.

To view the original ad, check out the video below.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons