Maccas wants to be seen as a family-friendly restaurant and claims to care about the communities in which its global restaurant chains do business. But is that true when these are among some of the images playing on a music video loop in stores throughout Australia? Why do our kids have to see these images? Why do any of us? Help us help Maccas to pay attention and stop serving up objectification with its burgers.
According to their website Maccas claims their values are:
We’re #NotBuyingIt – We call on Maccas to exercise corporate social responsibility and immediately remove all soft porn from Australian in-store screens. Implement national guidelines on what content can be shown on in-store screens.
Let’s pressure Maccas to act. Click here to sign the petition.
This week our petition calling on McDonald’s to ditch the soft porn gained media attention, forcing them to respond. After being contacted by a journalist a McDonald’s spokesperson said each fast food restaurant selected its own entertainment content and apologised to families who were exposed to the video.
The article stated:
“A McDonald’s spokesperson said it would take measures to avoid a repeat of the incidents. “We are proud of our reputation as a family-friendly restaurant and aim to create a welcoming, safe and respectful environment,” the spokesperson said. “Each restaurant commonly selects television programs for viewing that are readily available on commercial television. In this case we apologise to anyone that was offended.”
But do we buy it? What exactly are the measures that McDonald’s will take to avoid a repeat of the incidents? Since starting the petition we have been contacted by parents from all around Australia claiming that their local McDonald’s also screens sexualised content. Many of these parents have complained to McDonald’s before.
Here are just a handful of comments from our petition:
“I’ve experienced this at McDonald’s on Springvale Rd and Maroondah Hwy Melbourne where a woman’s breasts were exposed on a music video large t.v screen for all to see and I made an official complaint via McDonald’s but never had a reply. It’s inappropriate for a public place! Wake up to yourselves, your staff are young, your clients are often children and could be porn addicts for all you know you are feeding them more than food!” – Ian Watkinson
“Several years ago, my sister-in-law complained about highly sexualised content on a Maccas TV whilst at a kids’ birthday party.” -Tim Rushbrook
“I’ve seen this in store & complained & nothing was done!” – Colleen Miller
“Dad of 6. Seen full frontal nudity on TV screens in Maccas before. Couldn’t believe it! Was not alone with other parents in Maccas with a general sentiment of what are they thinking… Kind of like, A Happy meal and would you like boobs with that. Spoke to person at counter and they just said the channel was set and they couldn’t do anything. Got the vibe I was making a fuss about nothing. Complained twice at different Maccas. Not impressed.” – Mike Wilson
For a company the size of McDonald’s it would be quite easy to implement a national policy around what content can and cannot be played within their franchises. McDonald’s needs to come clean about what their plan is to keep their establishments porn free across the country.
Thousands of people have signed our petition. If you have not signed please add your name here.
Leave McDonald’s a message here asking them what measure will they take to ensure soft porn is no longer screened to kids.
2 Responses
I stopped taking my kids bowling because of the non stop music videos with barely clad girls twerking, and happy to add Maccas to the list. Passive soft porn in the background of our kids lives is not ok.
Seen this before at McDonalds and wasn’t impressed. Surely with all the tv stations available these days they could choose something more child friendly.