McDonald’s Mistakenly Thinks Internet Won’t Mock “Lovin’ Beats Hatin'” Slogan

(Paxton Holley)

McDonalds’ — the company that is actively advertising the fact that some consumers believe there might be horse meat in its burgers — has a good idea for how it could be the target of additional mockery, with a plan to actually use the apostophe-abusin’ slogan “Lovin’ Beats Hatin'” in an upcoming campaign.

The Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today blog reports that the slogan — which is just an extension of, and not a replacement for, the “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign that McDonald’s has driven into the ground over and over again since 2003 — is set to make its debut on Jan. 1, giving every hungover American a good reason to go to any other fast food restaurant than one that thinks “Lovin’ Beats Hatin’.”

This lovin’ fest will apparently peak during the Super Bowl on Feb. 1, so that everyone who managed to avoid the commercials for the month leading up to that night will suddenly understand the various jokes their friends have been making on Facebook about McDonald’s.

While the “I’m lovin’ it” slogan has been dropping its “g” for more than a decade and is considered a success by some, one has to wonder about the logic of continuing — or rather, continuin’ — to beat that dead horse (which by no means goes into your Big Mac) when sales have been sagging for the fast food giant.

Additionally, while everything I learned about the advertising biz came from watching Bosom Buddies and Thirtysomething as a child, I’m pretty sure that using the word “hate” in a slogan is akin to, I dunno, running ads featuring regular consumers questioning whether or not the food you make is real.

The AV Club’s inimitable (seriously, I dare you to imitate him) John Teti points out that the updated slogan finally gives consumers a reason for lovin’ “it” — because lovin’ is superior to hatin’.

“Customers of the restaurant have long assumed that ‘I’ was lovin’ ‘it’ because there was something about the ‘it’ that made ‘it’ irresistibly lovable,” explains Teti, “but now the truth appears to be that all these years, ‘I’ has been lovin’ for the sake of lovin’ — which calls into question the relevance of ‘it’ in the first place.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist