It’s sweet that you can “come as you are” to a French McDonald’s, especially if you’re an adorable floppy-haired gay teen who hasn’t come out to his dad yet. But this commercial from overseas is infuriating Slezak and me right now. What happens next? Will he or his voice crack? Are they going to share pommes frites? Will Amélie Poulain stop by to turn the class picture into an origami vintage chandelier? We demand about a thousand more episodes of this sweet ‘n’ sour saga. Also, mon dieu, they have waitresses there!
CORRECTION: That’s not a waitress. Just the cleanup crew. Or maybe me.
Annie on Twitter: @EWAnnieBarrett
I can only imagine the uproar if this were an Amercian commercial. Well done France!
It’s sad that a commercial like this wouldn’t fly in the States. It’d love to see it, but people like Glenn Beck would use it to stir up some crazy controversy like how an education at an all-boy school can confuse a boy into thinking he’s gay. The Beck-bots and the Tea Party would then protest in D.C. to ban single-sex schools. After their march, they’d all go to McDonald’s to celebrate.
Hahahaha, Ed!!! So true!!
Based on what I know about Glenn, he wouldn’t dare go there. Just sayin.
Heh. Beck would also work it something to imply that French are becoming like nazis. He’d also probably cry for effect.
There would definatley be a lot of obscure chalk board charts to prove something to that effect lol
Please, don’t mis-characterize the Tea Party movement. It’s all about financial reforms, NOT social reforms. The Tea Party is welcoming to all regardless of race, creed or orientation.
To Rich, I respectfully disagree. I live in D.C., and there have been several Tea Party protests here in the last year. Some of the signs and chants the Tea Party had were social, not financial (and they were hateful: antigay, racist comments about the president, prejudice). In fact, I had dinner with two friends of mine (a gay couple) not too far from the Tea Party protest. We were surrounded by many people from the Tea Party (evidenced by their t-shirts and protests signs). When my friends held hands over the table, some Tea Partyers made homophobic comments. A table of five actually got up and left, whispering “fags” as they left. So while I agree that at the core the Tea Party movement may be largely about financial reforms, they are not as welcoming as you make them appear.
His head would explode. So why is bringing the ad to the US a bad idea?
Annie, when are you going to get in the closet?
Sacre bleu! Will papa be able to finish his Royale with cheese? Now I’m all hungry.
Spoiler alert: Annie Barrett is actually the McD’s waitress, who, being the gay boy’s real life bestie, helps him through spilling the beans to Pere.
That would be the best commercial ever.
That’s way better than anything I came up with. Sharing fries? How gauche.
Couldn’t agree more! Wow, this commercial makes me want to know more…
Annie and Slezak – Shoot your own ending! We’ll watch!
PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE.
I wish we had commercials like this in America. Instead our McDonald’s commercials are kind of annoying.
Great commercial! But waitresses? I don’t think that girl walking by at the end is a waitress…probably on cleaning duty (like I had to do when I worked at McDs!)
That’s kind of how I saw it, too (clean-up duty).
agreed. why would the father have brought his own food from the counter if they had waitresses?
Kinda disturbs me that McDo found it necessary to tell gay people that they’re welcome in their restaurants. Was it implied otherwise in some other way that resulted in the decision to make this ad?
Segmenting people frightens me somewhat. McD’s already has website specific to black and asian customers, and now they’re targeting the gay customers.
What’s next?
Ha! I suppressed those very thoughts, especially about this possibly being a response to some backlash. If that is actually why this commercial was made…Le Sigh
Just a thought: He would be the most averagely hot gay protagonist to ever be in a LGBT film. So thumbs up from here.
Aww! I want them to do a whole series, a la those old “Taster’s Choice” ads with Anthony Stewart Head (I’m probably the only one posting old enough to remember those commercials).
no, you’re not.
I remember those “Taster’s Choice” ads! And we’re not old. We were…amazingly attentive when we were young.
I remember!! Did the couple ever marry in the end. I loved that soap…I’mean commercial!
Not old! Still awesome! When I first saw Buffy, I was all, hey, don’t I know that Giles guy from somewhere?
OMG I still remember those commercials. And then the first time I saw Buffy on TV I was like “The Coffee Guy!!!”.
Thanks, all.
I like the “amazingly attentive” remark.
I’ve seen a lot of foreign McDonalds commercials, and I have to say I wish US McDonalds commercials tried to be a little classier or at least less annoying. It is a shame that this commercial wouldn’t stand a chance here in the US, it was really sweet.
I think this ad would be a lot more progressive if it had the son and his boyfriend having lunch with the dad. Right now, it’s about a kid who’s obviously still afraid to come out to his father. Not sure I see what’s so sweet about that…
Maybe we just think it’s sweet that nos oncle McDonalds is cool with it and doesn’t want him to change.
yeah what happens next?
I’m hooked.