Posted on 03/03/2006 10:13:38 AM PST by kenavi
Only once in McDonalds’ history has the fast food giant redesigned its logo. To comply with French law, which requires all signs on Paris’ fashionable Champs-Elysees boulevard to be in gold, the chain printed its sign with a golden background.
Now, McDonalds is offering a second redesign, this time for its Israeli restaurants, Israel’s leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.
At two of the fast-food chain’s kosher branches in Tel Aviv, the standard logo has been replaced with a blue and white one, with “McDonalds” printed only in Hebrew, in white letters against a blue backdrop. The word “Kosher” is printed in English and Hebrew to the side of the restaurant name.
The two branches, one at the Tel Aviv towers and one at Tel Aviv University, were recently awarded a kashrut certificate after opting to kasher their kitchens and withdraw dairy products from their menus.
Of the 120 McDonalds restaurants in Israel, 19 of them have kashrut certificates, although all of the branches purchase only kosher-certified ingredients.
Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, stands behind the initiative to alter the famous logo. “When I assumed my position 10 months ago and I had to sign kashrut certificates for two (McDonald’s) restaurants in Tel Aviv, I refused because my conscience wouldn’t let me,” Rabbi Lau says. “I was mainly concerned that tourists or adolescents who visit one kosher branch may jump to the conclusion that all McDonald’s branches in Israel are kosher.”
The branches with the new blue-and-white logos will act as a sub-branch of McDonald’s, says Omri Padan, McDonald's Israel franchisee. At all non-kosher branches of the restaurant, Padan said, blue-and-white signs listing kosher locations will be posted by the cash registers, to further avoid confusion.
Don't mean to be flippant - don't the Israelis have more things to worry about than the color of McD's signs. Don't get me wrong - I am an ardent supporter of Israel and her people but I wonder how much of this "protest" is organized by the pro-muslim, Israeli left?
Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
McTorah?
1) This is purely a religious matter.
2) Do you really think Israelis only think about war? Do you imagine that they only have a right to think about war?
3) I have noticed a small but definite tendency at FreeRepublic to make light of Jewish laws on kashrut. This really is absolutely none of their business, in the same way the eucharist isn't our concern.
Then Glen Beck is a nasty little bigot without the first idea of what being Jewish entails.
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
..................
You're kidding, right? How could it be any more trivial?
Articles on Israel can also be found by clicking on the Topic or Keyword Israel.
..................
It's not about the color of the signs, rather the confusion of a Kosher restaurant with a non-Kosher one. It makes sense, from McDonald's perspective as well since you're dealing with different menus.
I don't think you're being flippant, but I suspect there is an aspect or two of this you haven't considered. First, the governmental folks in Israel who are quoted in the article are the exactly right ones for this argument - they're only doing their jobs. It's a lot like the USDA's inspection of beef - We wouldn't expect them to stop doing so just because we're in a war on terror, would we?
Second, mcbranded restaurants like McDonalds are predicated on getting substantially the same products at every franchise store. In this case, only 2 stores have the kashut certificates. To maintain the identical McDonalds brand identity for those two stores would confer the impression that all other Mickey D's in Israel were also certified to that standard, possibly (or probably) misleading customers.
In the end, this agreement is a truth-in-advertising solution, where the special status of a small minority of the stores is presented uniquely in order to eliminate confusion.
"Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
"
OK. Conservative, observant Jews are very careful with their food. Keeping kosher is not a whim...it is a religious must with such folks.
You may not take it seriously, but they sure do.
I suppose you would consider the Catholic church's opposition against abortion also a trivial matter?
After all, it's only a question of a religious law, right?
(/sarc)
"You're kidding, right? How could it be any more trivial?"
So...you consider the Jewish dietary laws to be trivial? I see. Well, it's clear that you are not an orthodox Jews, isn't it.
It's not trivial at all to them. Learn something, and you won't make stupid statements.
I put this more on the level of the simpletons who are upset at Proctor & Gamble for the man-in-the-moon on the logo.
"I put this more on the level of the simpletons who are upset at Proctor & Gamble for the man-in-the-moon on the logo."
Do you? Have a readthrough of Exodus and Leviticus, then, and you won't feel that way, perhaps. These are religious dietary rules. They may not be serious to you, but they are deadly serious to those who follow them.
I like Christian book stores and wouldn't shop in a Muslim one...so what??
Glenn Beck should stick to his own religion, if he doesn't understand the tenets of the one he is attacking.
This site has some useful information regarding this issue:
http://www.jewfaq.org/kashrut.htm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.