In "color me confused" news, one new aspect of the Zune mysteriously not mentioned during last week's exciting rollout was that now, courtesy of a partnership with McDonald's, you, the Zune user, can wirelessly download music while underneath the magnificent golden arches. This is somewhat similar to the iPhone/Starbucks partnership. I haven't been in a McDonald's in ages, so maybe they've hipped up the place as far as recommending music goes; either way, I think I'll just stick to my Double Double from In-N-Out and wait until I get home to download the new Taylor Swift single. [PR Newswire]
What's worse is that I can't stop thinking the hand in this ad for the fast-food monolith's Brazilian division is attached to Ronald McDonald's body, thus ruining yet another memory from my childhood. Thanks a lot, McDonald's! [copyranter]
It was only a matter of time before marketing departments dredged up old jingles and forced them through a 21st-century DIY makeover from hell. Case in point: McDonald's "Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickles onions on a sesame seed bun" ditty from the '70s, which is now the subject of an official MySpace competition to see who has the most time to waste on recording their own version of the song. Not wanting to leave any demographic behind, McDonald's has also launched a Spanish version of the website, complete with a translated version of the jingle. Unable to resist the lure of singing the Big Mac jingle in Spanish, I took it upon myself to submit an entry to the "Latino" category. My jingle after the jump.
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McDonald's is holding parking-lot concerts (why not in the ball crawl?), Taco Bell is shoving burritos down the pieholes of musicians (as part of their egregious "Fourth Meal" plan to make America even fatter), and Burger King is slinging MP3s along with french fries. This podcasted interview with Sherri Daye Scott, editor at restaurant trade mag QSR, and a marketing guy from Taco Bell goes into a little bit more detail about the fast food chains' latest attempt to paint themselves as "hip" and "with it" and not, you know, large, faceless purveyors of fat-choked snack treats.
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The fleet rapper Twista has responded to being removed from this Thursday's show at a Chicago-area McDonald's, which happened after the billboard-happy pastor at a local Catholic church complained about Twista's lyrical content to higher-ups at the fast-food chain:
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Call it the outdoor equivalent of the mall tour. This summer, McDonald's is hosting a 10-concert series in parking lots of its restaurants (presumably these shows will be held in spaces away from the drive-thrus):
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Idolator
