Rumors have always traveled fast, but Twitter seems to make them fly at the speed of light. A trending topic on Twitter called #seriouslymcdonalds has caused thousands of people to re-tweet a photo of a sign that was attached to the glass door of a McDonald’s restaurant. It turned out that the controversial sign was nothing more than a hoax.
McDonald’s has been in the news frequently for reasons that could be described as “less than positive” ones. Recently, there was a group that wanted the company’s mascot, Ronald McDonald, to be “banned”. If I understand everything correctly, I think the intent was to prevent McDonald’s from targeting its advertisement at children. It is somewhat hard to believe that Ronald McDonald, a clown with bright red hair, was designed as an attention getter that would influence adults to notice the ads.
In 2010, San Francisco, California, banned fast food restaurants, (like McDonald’s), from adding toys to children’s meals. Again, it seems this move was designed to prevent the company from targeting children in their advertisement measures. There was a movie made called “Supersize Me” that showed, in vivid detail, the health problems that could come from existing on a diet of only McDonald’s food.
The company also was criticized because the mini-med health insurance that it offered to many of its employees was inadequate. The insurance had a very low cap that could be spent through from just one visit to an Emergency Room. The insurance also did not meet the regulation that requires all health insurance companies to spend at least 80% of the money that comes from insurance premiums on things that directly benefit the health of the consumers who are paying for the policy.
Today, a photo appeared on Twitter that has brought controversial attention to McDonald’s once again. The photo is of a paper sign that has been attached to the glass door of a McDonald’s restaurant by a piece of masking tape. The sign appears to have the McDonald’s logo on it, and has a phone number that is listed under the words “McDonald’s Corporation”. Specifically, the sign says:
“Please Note: As an insurance measure due in part to a recent string of robberies, African-American customers are now required to pay an additional fee of $1.50 per transaction. Thank you for your cooperation, McDonald’s Corporation.”
The words “Please Note” are in bold text, and all caps. The words “African-American” and “1.50” are also in bold, and the word “additional” is in italics. This sign has gone viral and has been re-tweeted across Twitter enough to make #seriouslymcdonalds a trending topic. Obviously, there are many people who use Twitter that found this sign to be extremely racist.
It turns out, though, that this “insurance measure” is nothing more than a hoax. The website Mashable says that the phone number on the sign is attached to the KFC Customer Satisfaction Hotline, and questions whether or not a real employee of McDonald’s would attach a sign to the door with masking tape.
McDonald’s has its own Twitter account, and they have tweeted that the Seriously McDonalds picture is a hoax. It seems that you cannot believe everything that you see on the internet, even if it becomes a trending Twitter topic.
Image by rob_rob2001 on Flickr