From the Green Room: Social Progress via McDonald's?

McDonald’s is running a gay-friendly television commercial in France, a country well known for its progressive stance on all things sexual. Before you put the inherent double entendres of terms like “McNuggets,” “Grimace,” and “Happy Meals” to good use, watch the advertisement. You will realize it is less about being gay than it is about being an utterly clueless parent.

In the spot, a teenage boy looks at his class picture, and then talks on his cell phone to someone in the photo.  He tells the person on the phone that he misses them, and then abruptly hangs up as his papa arrives at the table with “Le Big Macs.”  Dad remarks how, back in school, he was “quite the ladies man,” and that it’s too bad his son’s class is all boys, as father believes junior could follow in his old man’s footsteps and “get all the girls.”  The boy smiles knowingly, while Pops continues munching on his French fries (which in France are probably just called “fries”), completely unaware that the fruit of his loins has a special secret. 

Parents are notoriously oblivious to, well, just about everything. They’re very similar to the serial killer’s next door neighbor, who, when interviewed by the local news team after the psychopath has been apprehended, always maintains, “Gee, he never acted weird, he was such a quiet guy, pretty much kept to himself.”

Unfortunately, the reporter never adds at that point: “Um…well, the severed heads we found in his freezer must’ve sent up a red flag, didn’t they?” As the poet wrote, “When ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise,” and in a world where oral sex has now replaced the goodnight kiss…IN MIDDLE SCHOOL…you almost can’t blame Mom and Dad for choosing to remain blind to the painfully obvious. 

One can’t help but wonder what telltale signs Daddy Dense missed during his son’s upbringing that would have suggested his son “grew out of his heterosexuality.”  But to be fair, what would be considered homosexual behavior here in the U.S. might not serve the same function in France. 

For instance, in this country, a gourmand connoisseur of fine wines who has impeccable taste in interior the McRibdesign is most certainly gay. In France, it’s merely “de rigueur.”  

Still, McDonald’s must be applauded for recognizing the homosexual community, even if it’s only to embrace them as a lucrative demographic. Especially considering that in a culture of culinary snobs, it must be difficult to market something called a “McRib.”