Posted on 07/08/2006 3:02:49 AM PDT by Liz
The mayor of a small Bergen County, New Jersey town is calling for a McDonald's boycott if the fast-food chain does not take down a Spanish-language billboard.... Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan said the advertisement is "offensive" and "divisive"......"The true things that bind us together as neighbors and community is our belief in the American flag and our common language," Lonegan said. "And when McDonald's sends a different message, that we're going to be different now, that causes resentment."
Representatives for McDonald's and CBS Outdoor in New York, the company that owns the billboard on River Road in Bogota, defended the advertisement....said Jodi Senese, executive vice president for marketing for CBS Outdoor.
Jennifer Nagy, a marketing manager of McDonald's NY Metro Region, stood by the advertisement.
Lonegan was dismissive of the statement yesterday. "I think that their boilerplate press release is totally meaningless," Lonegan said. "It shows their utter disregard for this community."
Martin Perez, president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, an umbrella group of 250 Hispanic organizations, said there is an "anti-Latino" sentiment behind the opposition to the advertisement.
Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said McDonald's has a first amendment right to advertise in Spanish.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
PHONE toll-free 1-800-244-6227.
SNAIL MAIL U.S. corporate mailing address: McDonald’s Corporation 2111 McDonald's Dr Oak Brook, IL 60523
EMAIL FORM: http://www.mcdonalds.com/contact/contact_us/social_responsibility.html
I wish Comcast cable service would stop paying for billboards in Spanish. I saw a couple of them when I went home to Delaware last weekend.
OK, so just who is going to buy cable to get a couple of Spanish speaking channels?
Why shouldn't McDonald's advertise to whomever they want to? It's a free country. There are no tax dollars going towards those ads.
People now realize that without unifying factors between new immigrants and residents of this country, we eventually will break up into specific cultural groups that will inevitably vie against one another for power over the direction of our country. We will become balkanized.
Our politics will divide even more on ethnic issues and petty points that previous generations were able to get pass because of the integration of immigrants into American culture. It's obvious the concepts of "Diversity" and "Multiculturalism" have been introduced to our society as a means to injure our nation by irreparably dividing our people along ethnic lines.
This can no longer be permitted nor tolerated. I myself adore my linguistic capabilities. I speak Portuguese like a fish breathes water and absolutely love the Spanish language. I don't even listen to American music having wholly rejected it when the abomination of Rap hit the airwaves. But I am COMPLETELY AMERICAN and anyone who wants to live here on our shores must strives for the same thing.
We as a society should accept no less.
This is our home and we cannot tolerate guests who try to push us around and tell us how to run things. They need to conform or be shown the door in the harshest possible manner.
/Caffeine induced rant off.
Why can't a private company advertise in whatever language it likes?
Evidently free speech has a different meaning to some people.
Who cares what they choose to spend their money on.
Although I have no problem with this ad, THIS is the point people simply refuse to get because they don't WANT to get it.
In a nation with so many differences among the populace--religious, political, ethnic, cultural--there has to be SOMETHING that ties us together on a social level. You simply HAVE to have a common language in order for all of those in the society to be on at least that common level--the ability to talk to each other, to communicate.
This has been perverted so people claim it's some form of cultural hegemony to insist that everyone in the country can be on the same page in terms of communication. In decades past, immigrants WANTED to learn, in fact, they would consider someone trying to STOP them from learning the nation's language someone who wanted to keep them down.
All who have achieved any level of success in this country have one thing and one thing only in common--they were able to communicate to the fellow members of the society.
Anyone--any parent--who resists having a common language is not only an arrogant pr*ck without an operating brain; he or she is actively assisting in the failure of his or her children for the rest of their lives.
But as a general point on the debate I believe my words still stand.
Thanks for the posts.
That's the beauty of capitalism.
My Grandmother lived here for 70 years and never learned to speak English. She was a wonderful and courageous woman, but she lived her life in a very small circle that included her family and a few friends on the block where we lived. Most of them came from the same small town in Italy.
Her sister, my Zia, learned to speak English very soon after arriving in 1921. She also had the love of her family and friends in the neighborhood, but her life included the larger cultural and commercial world beyond our small community.
Those of us who think that immigrants should assimilate into American culture without losing their unique ethnic heritage should not feel at all defensive about it. Those who shout the loudest about diversity are the ones who are trying to ghettoize new Americans for narrow political reasons.
We'll be rooting for Team Italia this Sunday, but only because Team USA has been eliminated.
Liz, I have to disagree with you. If I invest in a corporation I expect, as a stock holder in a capilist economy, that they will will do anything that is legal and ethical to sell their product - McDonalds should adapt to their market. If a town has so many spanish speaking people it makes economic sense to market to them then that's what they should. If everybody in town like NASCAR then a stock car racing promotion might make sense.
They tailor McDonalds all around the world to the local market - it would be a shame if here in America they were restricted from normal adaptive marketing.
Interesting thoughts.
Those who think the word "assimilation" is some kind of horrible idea are those in the position to "help" i.e. control those who haven't assimilated--and can think and act for themselves.
One doesn't have to give up one shred of their ethnic heritage by learning the language of the nation one has moved to--that's just absurd. I thought all these libs thought learning was the greatest thing in the world--somehow, learning a language of your community is a BAD thing, though!
You'd think liberals wouldn't want The Man to hold people down by limiting their ability to exchange ideas and information. Wouldn't someone who was AGAINST recent immigrants be telling them "Don't learn English"? Instead, the libs are the ones telling people "Don't learn the language of the political and business class--stay ignorant of what the people with power are saying."
This will be a mute point in fifty years. Hispanics will be a majority then.
Well, it's marketing pure and simple. Whether it maximizes sales or minimizes them remains to be seen.
Private enterprises have the right to do all kinds of things that aren't a good idea.
Thats very true. They have every right to advertise in Spanish. And Americans who dont like it have every right to find another place to eat.
I wholly agree, per my second post. My commentary was more of a generalization on the language thing. I just feel strongly about the overall debate. Private business owners know their market and how to reach it. I won't dispute that point. Again, coffee induced rant. : )
A private company can advertise however it wants. And we the people can boycott however we want. We don't have to shutup and take it.
But what is it exactly that you have to "take"? How is their advertising to Spanish people something that hurts you? In what way, specifically, does it force you to "take" anything?
"Why shouldn't McDonalds adverise to whomever they want to?"
You are absolutely right! And if the American citizens are fed up with pandering to the non English speaking "residents" of this country, then they also have the right to go to spend their dollars at another establishment.
Nice rant. More caffeine please? J
Freedom of speech does not mean that therewon't be any negative consequences due to what someone says - just ask Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. They have lost millions of dollars due to her and her big mouth. "Freedom of Speech" just means that jack-booted government thugs won't be kicking down your door and hauling you away for what you said.
The true beauty of "Freedom of Speech" is that you can say what you want, and I can say what I want. But, I don't have to purchase your products if you say something I don't like. Furthermore, I am free to organize others who feel the same as I do. If I get enough folks together to have a financial or public image impact on a company, they may see fit to change their view (or not aka. Natalie referenced above). And, in this case, they are a McDonalds Franchise....so what happens to them effects McD's nationwide.
Capitalism and Freedom are WONDERFUL things ...
This is still America and private businesses can take whatever advertising risks they see fit to attract more business. If it works, great; if not, well those are the risks.
Deport the illegals and McDonalds will go back to English-only.
In light of the raging national debate against amnesty, the McDonald's foreign language ad looks less like a marketing campaign than it does a political statement that comes down squarely on one side of an unpopular issue.
That is what is so offensive. Before the political controversy, the ad campaign would have been innocuous and no big deal to most people.
As the anti-illegal political battles rage, suddenly McDonald's looks like it is sticking its finger in the eye of the average American opposed to amnesty.
They should just stay out of it right now.
Wish we could get that on a tee shirt.
No McSalads for McMe!!
I, on the other hand, can't abide the spanish language. It's offensive to my ear.
Now, German. That's another story.
Meine schoene Gotterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium...
It's kind of a sad irony that the very same people that used to denounce diversity when the libs pushed it are now espousing it when it comes to targeting spanish-speaking customers and voters.
"OK, so just who is going to buy cable to get a couple of Spanish speaking channels?"
Millions of Hispanics (legal and illegal) who speak primarily or only Spanish. The answer to your next question is: They can afford it because you pay their social services costs.
Seesh, come to Los Angeles. About a quarter of the billboards in my neighborhood are in Spanish. McDonalds is onyl one company courting Hispanics.
On the other hand, if it works, more power to the boycotters.
"we have no right demanding they change their ad campaigns."
Bingo! You are absolutely correct! And they shouldn't mind when American citizens decide to boycott their products because of their political pandering.
I agree with you. And I'll sum it up with:
The Melting Pot made America a great nation. Diversity divides it.
Who suggested they can't?
I'll repeat what I said earlier:
The Melting Pot made America "one nation." Diversity seeks to divide it, one against the other.
Thanks for the contact info.
I called, got a very polite person one the other end, left my complaint, along with my name etc.
I suggest others take a couple of minutes to do the same.
McDonalds is American as apple pie and motherhood and shouldn't be involved in Balkanizing the coutry.
The good news is that the PC atrocity is dying on the vine of resurgent populism.
Elitist liberals and their enforcers ---- The Thought Police----have lost the battle to control how we think and what we can say.
YOU have NO right to demand that WE change our campaign against them!
So there!
Thanks for the realtime report. Nice work on your part.
We are threatened by an invading foreign force with no allegiance to our Nation that has threatened to takeover with the vote and with violence, if necessary.
FReeper pax_et_bonum was horrified, "that even the most responsible, rational, friendly students in my high school ESL class thought that their Mexican people were entitled to our land. Most of them, however, weren't friendly but were resentful and/or obviously hate-filled toward me for no good reason. This is, no doubt, a violent foreign invasion."
Marcus Tullius Cicero Roman--Statesman---Speech in the Roman Senate-42 BC "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. "
"Why can't a private company advertise in whatever language it likes?"
"You are sounding like the crowd that goes around telling Wal-Mart what benefits their employees should receive.
McDonalds is a privately owned company. If they are not in violation of the law, we have no right demanding they change their ad campaigns."
Companies can of course advertise in whatever language they like. And I am free to reject them in whatever language I like--which in my case would be English.
As for McDonald's being a "privately owned company"...no, it is a publicly owned company. Do you now withdraw your argument?
Your erroneous premise aside: The discussion is not about the "violation of the law," it's about a violation of our culture.
Darkwolf is one of the best-known illegal immigration apologist-stooges on FR, so there is no hope there. But Read2Know, you are usually much more reasonable.
Liz: You go, chica (I mean girl!)
LOL.
Let McD's know what it can do with its jalapeno peppers.
Beautiful----sums it up most succinctly.
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