"I'm Lovin' It" is the McDonald's Corporation's new PR offensive. Ronald McDonald has been reduced to a cartoon, Justin Timberlake has been hired for adverts and the chain is trying to push a new "healthy" image.

Recent adverts have involved dancing elderly people, gigantic flying burgers and...Chris Eubank. Whether Chris Eubank, an extremely healthy boxer, is the correct person to be representing a fast food chain which produces lard-filled meals by the dozen is yet to be decided upon, but in general this idea of promoting the clean, healthy, spiffy-to-the-very-core Maccy D's is a good idea.

It's to try to win over the "modern consumer". The modern consumer has read Fast Food Nation cover to cover, read all about the McLibel trial, has pored over every bit of nutritional information available about McDonald's food. They want to see a radical shakeup in the way the Golden Arches are run, and the "I'm Lovin' It" campaign is a way of getting through to these people the (probably not entirely true) message "Hey, we've changed. Our kitchens are clean, our staff are well paid and eating a Big Mac isn't going to kill you. Come eat some burgers". It's also a way of getting through to the youth, who probably prefer a local fast food store or some other place that's not fronted by a clown.

The campaign seems to be successful, and McDonald's profits are going up a little, if not by much. But time will tell just how successful it will really be in an era of rude boys and yuppies.

---

As an aside, I found the following glued to a wall at my school. The note is gone now, but it went something like:

15% raccoon
3% beef
2% roadkill
80% cholesterol

All in your new BIG MAC
I'm lovin' that!

I couldn't stop laughing for a full 5 minutes.