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Messenger. The. Shoot. Don’t.

McDonald’s is apparently really very cross that a new edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary includes the definition for the term “McJob” as “low-paying and dead-end work” (and this is reported as “news” despite the fact that this meaning for the term was coined by Douglas Coupland over 10 years ago–frankly I’m surprised it hasn’t made it into the dictionary more quickly).

Some people never learn. Just as the ill-thought out legal action of the McLibel case backfired spectacularly resulting in years of negative publicity, so the effect of issuing this press release has been not only to promote someone else’s product, but also to paint themselves as the bad guy oppressive multinational trying to censor the English language in the name of trademark dilution. Did they really expect anyone reading this to take McDonald’s side? Of course it’s those dictionary-compiling jerks that are really at fault, not the poor little multinational conglomerate.

2 thoughts on “”

  1. As we are destined to learn in the Effective Communications Course, if someone misunderstands you, it’s your fault, not theirs.

    If people see McDonald’s as a greedy taskmaster and they don’t like that image, maybe they should consider what might make people think those things about them.

    Sort of like America . . . but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

    And since when have fish come in kettles? All my kettle has in it is limescale.

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