[BCMA] McDonald's Radio Ad - Some information for BC museums

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Hello all,

Late yesterday there a flurry of activity on our Facebook Group
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/1048785051856616> as people told us they
had heard a recent McDonald's Canada ad come across their local radio
station airwaves.  It seems that the ad takes aim at museums, suggesting $5
is better spent on a hamburger than on museum attendance and programs.
Understandably, this caused some of our members to reach out and share
their displeasure with the marketing tactic!

Tracy Calogheros – CEO The Exploration Place Museum + Science Centre - has
kindly shared here response, below.  Tracy wrote a well-worded press
release and sent it to her local media.  Thanks Tracy for taking this
initiative and speaking up for BC museums!

If any of you have heard the ad and feel the same, feel free to write to
your local media and/or McDonald's Canada as well.  If you require some
statistics to bolster your arguments, please see our 2018 Submission to the
Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services:
http://museumsassn.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/BCMA-2018-Budget-Submission.pdf


If anyone has a copy of the ad, we would love to hear it!  Please also
consider sharing your responses with us so we can track this situation and
shape our responses accordingly.

Thank you all!

Ben and the BCMA office team

*Tracy's press release:*

As I left work at The Exploration Place Museum and Science Centre last
night, I turned on 99.3 The Drive here in Prince George and was treated to
a new, national McDonald’s radio ad that manages, in 15 seconds or less, to
belittle not only my 24 years in the Museum Industry but the work of tens
of thousands of Museum Professionals, our millions of visitors, members,
funders and deeply committed sponsors.  In a market like Prince George
there is only one museum featuring dinosaurs and a gift shop and this ad
feels like a direct attack on the Exploration Place Museum + Science Centre
which, intended or not, is directly damaging to our brand and to our
relationship with our community.  We have spent years developing an
award-winning, community institution that is relevant and engaging but
according to McDonald’s new ads, it was all a waste of time because people
are much better served by the five minutes of empty calories and salt being
promoted in their new radio campaign.



The ad dismisses museum programming and gallery content and warns listeners
that we are just pushing them through our gift shops as they exit
(ostensibly to rip them off) but, not to worry because Lo a savior is upon
us; McDonalds will sell you a much more valuable thing than life-long
learning and access to scientific research for your $5, they will sell you
a discounted hamburger instead.  Interestingly, this is not being
advertised as a great follow up to your engaging family visit to your local
museum but rather is being framed as an either/or scenario.



There is so much wrong with this campaign that it’s hard to know where to
start but I feel certain of a few things:



1.       McDonalds invests millions in targeted advertising, from
demographic research to Return On Investment assessments and have been
doing so for decades.  I do not believe this was unconsidered or
accidental, nor do I think it’s funny. For a multi-national corporation
like McDonalds to target charities to feed their own bottom line is
disgraceful. Pick on somebody your own size.



2.       McDonalds is still making money on their $5 campaign, AFTER paying
overhead like staffing, location, food costs and marketing fees; they are,
after all, a for-profit, multi-national corporation.  Museums are almost
universally non-profits, admission fees paid by visitors are heavily
subsidized by donors, funders and earned revenue streams for these
community based charities.  That $5 program fee that McDonald’s is
denigrating actually costs the museum more like $20+ per attendee. (At The
Exploration Place we charge $3.50 per student for a school program on
dinosaurs like the one McDonald’s says isn’t as good a deal as their
hamburger)



3.       In a world where credibility and access to scientific research is
held up as the only way to combat “fake news,” where the public is being
cautioned to “check their sources” and to “do their research,” to be sure
that they “know their history,”  this insidious ad campaign tells its
carefully targeted audience that it is more valuable to eat McDonald’s food
than it is to attend a Museum.  This message undermines everything the
Museum, Science Centre,  Zoo, Aquarium, Art Gallery and Archive industries
have been striving for over the last 100 years.  If we are going to keep up
with the pace of technological change in today’s world human beings need to
embrace wholeheartedly the concept of life-long learning; Museums are one
place that helps to foster that idea from the cradle to the grave and
undermining us hurts everyone.



You may have guessed by now that I am furious.  This is starting to reach
into the museum social media world, I saw a post today out of Vernon on the
British Columbia Museums Association Facebook page regarding the ads.  This
is not just me, not just Prince George, or even just museums; this is
offensive and damaging to the population at large as it is striving to
create a perception that museums and their programming are somehow not for
everyone, that they are not to be trusted. This attack is coming from a
wealthy, multi-national corporation with seemingly bottomless pockets for
targeted advertising to young families with children, precisely the
demographic that our collective future depends on and that all museums work
so hard to build relationships with.



I find it ironic that McDonalds would attack museums and palaeontology
today but that they are happy to feature *Jurassic Park* and *Night at the
Museum* in their Happy Meals when Hollywood is celebrating these topics.
This kind of self-serving campaign is hurting all of us because it is
divisive, pitting us against each other; us and them, when the truth is, we
are all in this together.



My local radio station has taken it seriously.  They answered me, after
hours, within minutes of my admittedly angry email to them and I had a call
from the station manager before 8:15 am this morning.  I am grateful to
them for caring and for recognizing that if I was that angry there must
have been a reason, so I would like to say thank you to CKPG and to Ron
Pollilo, Kelly Moorehead and Mike Clotildes in particular.

-- 
*Ben Fast*
Programs and Member Services Coordinator

BC Museums Association || 675 Belleville Street  || Victoria, BC || V8W 9W2

Office: 250-356-5700 <(250)%20356-5700>  || www.museumsassn.bc.ca
Direct Twitter: @benfaster <https://twitter.com/benfaster> Twitter:
@BCMuseumsAssn <http://www.twitter.com/BCMuseumsAssn> Facebook:
BCMuseumsAssn <https://www.facebook.com/BCMuseumsAssn>

*The BCMA is looking for 2018 Webinar hosts!  Consider submitting a webinar
proposal
<http://museumsassn.bc.ca/professional-development/upcoming-events/webinars/host-a-webinar/>.*
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