Taking Responsibility for Our Own McActions

"Stanford University researcher Tom Robinson recently published a study linking brands with the perception of quality in children. Apparently kids think McDonald's-branded products taste better than its unbranded (but identical) counterparts. This "revelation" is supposed to make us think that McDonald's is evil because their marketing is responsible for making kids fat."

Read more of my post today over at Marketing Profs: Daily Fix. - Cam Beck

Update 1: An executive from McDonald's has weighed in at the Fix.

Update 2: David Airey has a fascinating conversation going on over at his place on the same subject. In the comments section, he refers to an amusing exchange between infamous celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and Sir Cliff Richard, who has his own vineyard:

“Cliff’s got this vineyard in Portugal that he’s obsessed with, he’s crushing grapes and all the rest… so we brought him on the show and had this brilliant wine-tasting challenge.

“He thought one of the wines was amazing. Of course it was, it was $550 a bottle. Then we got to one which I told him was a $20 wine.

“He said, ‘That’s rubbish! I wouldn’t pay for that. It’s tainted, it tastes like vinaigrette. I’d never even buy that.’ “I said, ‘Cliff, that’s your own wine!’ He went bananas. He bent over and whispered in my ear, ‘F**k yourself.’”

Go check it out. Some great insight is coming from this debate.

One thing that occurred to me when I considered Stephen Denny's comment at the Fix is that the study measured the effect of the packaging, but it did not conclude that the brand preference was a result of the advertising.

Food for thought.

 

Comments

[David Airey :: Graphic Designer]

Thanks very much for the mention. It's been great to follow the thoughts on my blog and I'm glad you found the conversation interesting.