February 8th, 2012
McDonald’s have pulled a radio ad that was aired in the US after angering pit bull owners and advocates.
The ill-advised ad lists a number of activities riskier than trying their new chicken McBites – one of which is “petting a stray pit bull”.
Aired only in Kansas City, it has since spread across the web as international animal lovers are shocked by the insensitive way in which the conglomerate depicts pit bulls.
Commenters on social media sites are particularly aggrieved by the fact that a pit bull stray is singled out as an example – wouldn’t petting any strange dog be just as risky as approaching a pit?
A Facebook group has been set up for those wishing to voice their disdain towards McDonald’s and has garnered over 11,000 members since last Friday.
Rachele Lizarraga, a pet-sitter from Sacramento, set up the Facebook page.
“I found it extremely offensive and reckless,” Lizarraga. “Why would you try to promote the safety of food?”
Many have been calling for donations to be made towards pit bull organisations by McDonald’s but Lizarraga feels that an apology and a revocation of the biased statement should be enough:
“We are just asking them to promote positive pit bull imagery. We are not asking for donations. I don’t think that should be a demand,” she said. “It was stupid marketing, playing into the media hysteria about pit bulls.”
MacDonald’s spokesperson, Ashlee Yingling says, “The ad was insensitive in its mention of pit bulls. We apologise. As soon as we learned of it, we tracked the source and had the local markets pull the ad immediately. We’ll do a better job next time. It’s never our intent to offend anyone with how we communicate news about McDonald’s”
Listen to the original ad here:
By Sinéad. Filed under Dogs, News.
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