It’s funny how some images can mean one thing to one person and another thing to another. Take this Ronald statue from Thailand located right next to the drive-thru. I’m willing to bet that from the time of imagination to the time of production and placement, not one Thai citizen thought that Ronald McDonald standing with his hands clasped together would ever be considered offensive — and yet if you were to put this outside a North American McDonald’s, a lot of Christians would be up in arms!
Funny little world, isn’t it?
First of all, I think your statement is a tad presumptuous. Many people know Thais clasp their hands together when they say Sawasdee-kap.
Second, gestures mean different things in different cultures — and it’s perfectly alright. For instance, the A-OK gesture, while acceptable in North America, is extremely obscene in some parts of South America. Would you then complain that if McDonald’s were to put a statue in South America, that people there would be up in arms?
It’s quite clear your prejudice against Christians is showing.
Incidentally, I didn’t mean to associate the hand-clasping gesture with obscenity (obviously it’s not the case; I should know, I’m Southeast Asian).
The point I was trying to make in the 2nd paragraph is quite distinct from the first.
I’m just saying, don’t so be so quick to judge others.
just want to point out that Jim posted this and not me
hehe
I fully agree.
“gestures mean different things in different cultures — and it’s perfectly alright.” – that was my point.
“the A-OK gesture, while acceptable in North America, is extremely obscene in some parts of South America. Would you then complain that if McDonald’s were to put a statue in South America, that people there would be up in arms?”
A) I’m not complaining. B) Yes, I would assume that they would be up in arms. If we had a Ronald with a middle finger in East LA, but the middle finger was a sign of love in another culture, I’d assume the citizens of East LA would take issue with it.
If you seriously think that Certain fundamentalist Christians wouldn’t be offended by a praying Ronald at a McDonald’s drive-thru in America, you’re delusional.
You know what the real irony is? I posted this here instead of my actual McMonday post that was posted at fjetsam because I didn’t want to offend anyone this time around or stir up any controversy. Well fuck this — if you want to complain, go complain about something worthwhile — my real McD post for today;
http://fjetsam.com/index.php/features/columns/mcdonalds-mondays/mcdonalds-mondays-mcterrorism.index.html
Look – I’ve been reading this site for awhile. And I’ve never liked anything Jim Squires has done, including this post. I’ve just ignored him and his tackless posts. I fully agree with Paul that Jim acted without thinking but that isn’t anything new.
Here is something to think about. Jim says if someone wants to complain to complain about something worth while. Well Jim, if you want to write try writing something worthwhile – and by that I mean something intelligent instead of McDonalds and celebrites eating burgers.
But that isn’t what prompted me to post a comment.
Check the potty mouth. I recommended this site to family and friends in good faith. I won’t be doing so if you start dropping f-bombs just because someone rightfully put you in your place. This website has a community. And the individuals in that community deserve some respect.
I’m going to make this real easy. The reason I write here at SmartCanucks is because Boo was looking for some content outside of freebies and deals and asked if I’d be interested. I was. I also happen to write for a number of other sites, and on one of those I post up a McDonald’s Mondays post. Lately I’ve had very little time to post additional content here on SC, and since Boo asked if I could post the McDonald’s Mondays posts here too, I have been. Lately though, it seems as though the only comments being left on my posts are in the negative — so I’m going to leave it up to the community: do you want me to keep writing for SmartCanucks?
Boo — if you could post up a poll on the main page about whether or not they’d like me to continue, I’d appreciate it. There’s no point in my writing here if the community doesn’t like what I’m contributing, so let’s gauge their interest. Thanks!
ummm… wow. I just want to say that I like Jim’s posts and I agree that this version of “Ronald” would cause an uproar. I am a Christian and I am not offended by his post. I think his comment was interesting and harmless.
I actually find the comments made much more offensive than the original post.
This website does not owe anyone anything – it is here to provide different things to many different people. Take from it what you would like and appreciate the time taken by those who do contribute. If I’m not interested in it, I don’t read it- which is a pretty simple thing to do.
I would have to agree with the comment made by “frugiedh.” It’s nice to have a variety of postings on smartcanucks and I thought this one on mcprayer was interesting.
What I was curious about was why a Christian would find a praying “Ronald” offensive?
I happen to be a Christian and can’t for the life of me figure out what would be offensive– I think it would be great for all the conversations about spirituality that would start as a result of it!
“”What I was curious about was why a Christian would find a praying “Ronald†offensive?”
For some reason I would see this as a form of advertising and MacDonalds using religion to sell hamburgers just seems wrong to me.
AGAIN- to each his own and I can see how some may not feel this way when they see this prayng Ronald.
Wow. Some of you people are pretentious retards.
Why do religious people automatically assume someone is prejudice of their religion when said person makes a social comment? Maybe YOU wouldn’t be offended at this statue because you know so much about Thai culture. But consider that there are many retarded people in the world that would be offended, many of them living in America (read: Bill Donahue).
The “McPray” comment was probably not made in regards to Christians as individuals, but the undereducated populace that are offended at everything that doesn’t seem “Christian.” Though you guys may not be offended at the statue, you fell into a trap and were offended by this post.
Stop making everything about you. You aren’t special.
I liked this post a lot; its an interesting hypothesis.