The fattening of Japan one bacon burger (with egg) at a time? (redux)
I walked by a McDonald's on the way home (not hard to do; they're ubiquitous) and noticed the new burger poster in the "Big America" campaign. Harada-san at McDonald's Japan has done a great job bringing the company back over the last few years. I'm not having a go at McDonald's. They do what they do. They are not about healthy food and they have obviously given up trying to pretend. Fine. (I mean, who goes to McDonald's to get a salad in a plastic cup? Yum.) Japan does not have nearly the diet-related diseases that the USA and UK (etc.) have, but the younger generation loves this stuff. And that's OK in moderation, but moderation is not what I am seeing. By the way, in Japan McDonald's really has a good reputation and is not the object of ridicule as it is in some other countries. It's a good place to have a part-time job for a kid and the service is the way it is suppose to be: very fast, very friendly, very clean, very safe, etc. Yet few people see the irony in the campaign name "Big America." My fear, however, is that someday they'll have to change the name to "Big Japan."
The previous burger in the campaign was the Texas burger. See ad below.The voiceover is "Wairudo o tabetsukusou" ("Eat all of this wildness!"). Does not really translate directly; more of a feeling.See this article: "McDonalds Japan To Launch 4 'Big America' Burgers In 2010"
