Wednesday, June 16, 2010

McDonald's Operations Chief Basically Tells U.S. Gays to Go to Hell

I never cease to be amazed at the willingness of self-righteous "Christian" to attempt to inflict their religious beliefs on all - even in the business world where one ought to be courting every segment of consumers. Not so McDonald's operations chief, Don Thompson (pictured at left), who finds gays offense to his religious beliefs and has flatly rejected any U.S. advertising that might suggest that LGBT Americans are as welcome in McDonald's locations as say - blacks. Nope, that would offend Thompson as a Christian, so even though the gay accepting McDonald's ad running in France has done well - indeed, it probably made a positive impression on many LGBT consumers - Thompson has made it clear in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that no such ad will be seen in the USA. My response? I'm not big on fast food, but to the extent I will be buying any on car trips, etc., there are plenty of options besides McDonald's which will not be seeing a penny of my money. Here are highlights from the Tribune interview:
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Tribune: A French TV ad featuring a gay teen and his father has stirred some controversy — not there, but here. Can you talk about that?
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Thompson: It is an example that markets, cultures are very different around the world. (For instance), I've never shied away from the fact that I'm a Christian. I have my own personal beliefs and I don't impose those on anybody else. I've been in countries where the majority of the people in the country don't believe in a deity or they may be atheist. Or the majority of the country is Muslim. Or it may be the majority is much younger skewed. So when you look at all these differences, it's not that I'm to be the judge or the jury relative to right or wrong. Having said that, at McDonald's, there are core values we stand for and the world is getting much closer. So we have a lot of conversations. We're going to make some mistakes at times. (We talk) about things that may have an implication in one part of the world and may be the cultural norm in another part of the world. And those are things that, yes, we're going to learn from. But, you're right, that commercial won't show in the United States.
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Mr. Thompson, short of a public apology from you, you won't see me darken the door of any McDonald's location - EVER again. Sir, you are a bigot.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

burger king it is...until the make a public ass of themselves...