'Absolutely pathetic': McDonald's coronavirus advertisement is criticised
By: Yahoo News Australia
A McDonald’s advertisement encouraging social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak has been criticised online.
The restaurant’s Brazilian Instagram page on Tuesday posted a photo of the fast food chain’s famous golden arches logo separated in the middle.
The idea behind splitting the arches was to convey how the world’s population is "separated for a moment so that we can always be together”, advertising news site Ad Age reported, citing McDonald’s.
However, posts featuring the tweaked logo appear to have since been deleted.
It seems the change was not met with much positivity.
One man on Twitter called the idea “absolutely pathetic”.
“Everyone involved should be utterly ashamed of themselves,” he wrote.
Another man simply said, “Nope”.
“It’s a terrible idea to put something out there that causes the whole world to facepalm,” another tweeted.
“We’re really not supposed to touch our faces.”
A McDonald’s spokesperson told Fox News the restaurant apologised “for any misunderstanding” over the advertisement’s intent.
“As a brand that operates in nearly 120 countries, we share a collective responsibility to help our communities in times of need,” the spokesperson said.
“Throughout the world, we are modifying operations to adhere to social distancing guidelines and increasing our already strong hygiene standards to protect restaurant crew and the public.”
