This post is part of our Ads Gone Bad series. Share your thoughts and memories of this ad in the comments, and be sure to check out our other posts on marketing gone wrong.
As a 40-something trying -- but hopefully not too hard -- to cling to an increasingly tenuous understanding of current youth culture, I can imagine how McDonald's ad execs made the perilous mistake that landed them on our list of Ads Gone Bad.
It was probably a gathering of 40-something copywriters in a conference room in mid-town Manhattan. (I just finished reading Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, so now I think I'm an expert in such things). They were no doubt tossing around the latest slang that might play off McDonald's winning slogan "I'm Lovin' It."
Someone threw out, "I'd Hit It," and everyone pounced on it as a sure winner. Perfect for banner ads on websites.
But did anyone dare ask what it actually meant?
Apparently not. Or not until it was too late. The banner ads ran on places such as ESPN.com in late 2007. A young man looks longingly at a double cheeseburger. Then the ad flashes "I'd hit it."
What it meant -- as seems obvious from this vantage point -- is "I'd like to have sex with him or her." The MIT Brand Culture blog notes, "the slogan sounds somewhat strange in the context of hamburger advertising."
The target audience McDonald's hoped to reach found the gaffe so humorous that they created parodies. One on the MIT blog spoofs, "I'd hop on that like it was prom night."
The ad didn't run long, but lives on today on blogs and in parodies around the internet -- and as a lesson for marketing pros: If you're going to borrow from youth slang to sell a product, make sure you know what the phrase really means.
See other examples of Ads Gone Bad.
Five winners of a weak dollar
For a quick-read on the U.S. economy, check the price of gasoline
Closing Bell: What Friday 13th curse? (ANF, BA, GENZ, DIS, PALM, PLA)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-05-2008 @ 2:53PM
Paul said...
McDonald's? Out of touch with its target audience?! Portraying itself as "cool" as only the most clueless nerds know how?!?!
Nooooooooooo.......
9-06-2008 @ 2:48PM
david said...
I quit patronizing McDonalds years ago. I am no longer able to eat there.
9-07-2008 @ 2:22PM
LOIS said...
WHY DOES ANYONE NEED TO KEEP TRACK OF THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO PUT THEIR OWN MEANING TO WORDS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THAT ALREADY HAS A MEANING IN THE DICTIONARY!!!!! GET OVER IT EVERYONE AND START ACTING IN A CIVILIZED MANNER!!! SAY WHAT YOU MEAN & MEAN WHAT YOU SAY!
10-23-2008 @ 11:34AM
Sliverbane said...
Who do hey hire for marketing?? People who live in caves? I've seen mess-ups like this countless times over the years. A recent one: Frito-Lays new snack called Cracker Trax!!! WTF!!!? I instantly thought of the phrase 'pecker tracks'. Maybe not many people know of the prhase...but it made me laugh out loud in the grocery store.
10-30-2008 @ 9:34AM
run4cuvr said...
Wow... just wow. Get a sense of humor guys. So there was a sexual inuendo. Sex is healthy and natural and kinda required for the human race to keep existing. Who was the first idiot to decide it was too taboo to joke about?
10-30-2008 @ 12:50PM
Dale said...
There was a really obnoxious McDonalds at that ran in some technology magazines a couple years ago. It asked "Are you Mac" enough? And it had some very suggestive language. Since "Mac" is often a slang term to reference pimps, this was really inappropriate for a company that is supposed to be a family place to eat.
11-03-2008 @ 11:44AM
ria noviana said...
i have bad experience today when i was walking into the restaurant using a small door next to the motors parking lot i always walked.. it closed today. and there was a staff approach my friends and i tell that the door was closed, i asked him why? i always used that door every time i went here! not the proper explanation i get....he just said that i should not make it a habit to used that door.....(makanya jangan di jadiin kebiasaan, mbak!!!) the door made so the costumer can enter the restaurant any doors they want...
the manager said it was because of the `amrozi` , executions.
i always come there to have lunch or dinner because we are `anak kost`, verrryyy disappointed.