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

Wed Jan 10 10:30:24 PST 2018

Thank you for this – I have drafted and redrafted my social media posts about this a number of times without getting my concerns right. Tracy you have communicated my thoughts on this precisely.

Allison 

From: bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca [mailto:bcma-bounces at lists.vifa.ca] On Behalf Of Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 10:24 AM
To: bcma at lists.vifa.ca
Subject: [BCMA] McDonald's Radio Ad - Some information for BC museums

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:  <tel:(250)%20356-5700> 250-356-5700  ||  <http://www.museumsassn.bc.ca/> www.museumsassn.bc.ca
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