07/02/2012
Last Friday, over the span of just a few hours, pit bull-rights activists showed what can happen when we raise our voices. It all started Friday morning when a McDonald’s franchise in Kansas City aired a radio advertisement promoting their new Chicken McBites (you can listen to the spot below). The ad said “Trying a brand-new menu item at McDonald’s isn’t risky. You know what’s risky? Petting a stray pit bull.” Needless to say, friends of pit bulls were not amused.
Within hours of the commercial airing, a Facebook campaign began urging people to call the fast food giant and take the ad off the air (the Facebook graphic that was posted and reposted is also below). Before too long, the phones were ringing at McDonald’s headquarters. The corporate office was initially confused, as the ad apparently wasn’t part of a national campaign, but created by the local franchise. Nevertheless, McDonald’s immediately pulled the ad and issued the following apology:
“In our effort to spread the word about our new Chicken McBites, one of our local markets ran an ad that inadvertently offended some of our customers. The ad was insensitive in its mention of pit bulls. We apologize. We are pulling the ad, and will review our creative screening process. It’s never our intent to offend anyone with how we communicate news about McDonald’s.”
Not bad, Micky D, but if you really want to apologize, we recommend a sizable monetary donation to an organization like the Millan foundation to offset the damage to pit bulls that callous prejudicial remarks like the one in your ad cause.
Pit bulls aren’t looking for special rights, just to be treated with the same respect as any other breed of dog. Continue ending the pit bull prejudice, McDonald’s, and we’ll be lovin’ you again.
(Article by Cesar Milan)
