FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
McDonald’s asks indie band to play for free during SXSW. Read their fantastic reply
03.05.2015
01:54 pm
Topics:
Tags:


 
Up and coming punky pop duo Ex Cops (Amalie Bruun and Brian Harding) were asked by one of the largest corporations in the world (#106 on the Fortune 500 currently) to perform for free during the SXSW music festival in Austin, TX—well not exactly free, they’d be singing for their supper, but when supper’s at fucking McDonald’s, who wants that shit?

The Ex Cops replied with a posting on their Facebook page that’s getting a lot of traction:
 

 

‘McDonald’s asked us to play SXSW. This is Brian’s open letter about it.

This week our band was asked to play the McDonald’s Showcase at the annual South by Southwest, also known to music insiders as “SXSW.”

Their selling point was that this was “a great opportunity for additional exposure,” and that “McDonald’s will have their global digital team on site to meet with the bands, help with cross promotion, etc” 

I don’t, and doubt that they know what this means either.

Getting past that rhetoric, at the very least a big corporation like McDonald’s can at least pay their talent a little. Right?

“There isn’t a budget for an artist fee (unfortunately)”

As of 2013, McDonalds is valued at 90.3 billion dollars.

I won’t get into the internet semantics of things you’ve probably seen on your Facebook feed; like that thing where it takes a McDonald’s worker 4 months to earn what the CEO makes in an hour, or their GMO love affair, and I will certainly spare you the bounty of photos showing how they treat their animals.

In lieu of being paid like a real artist, or anyone who is employed to do a service, McDonald’s assures us that we will “be featured on screens throughout the event, as well as POSSIBLY mentioned on McDonald’s social media accounts like Facebook (57MM likes!)”

We recently headlined a show at the Brooklyn venue Baby’s Alright. They are by no means a DIY venue, but they are still an independent small business. The owners are people our age who used to book shows at Pianos and busted their asses to open a venue of their own in Brooklyn.

While I haven’t asked Billy or Zach how much they make annually (that would be weird) I’m going to guess they’re not looking at brownstones in Prospect Park at the moment. Yet when we played, we were paid very very fairly, were provided with drink tickets, and each band member fed a full entree from their menu (try the Brussels sprouts)

I will also go ahead and save time for any schill / troll rebuttals; “Are the other showcases paying you? No one is holding a gun to your head!” This is true. It is our choice (pretty much) to fly to Austin, play shows without soundcheck, and get paid nothing to a little. But hear this loud and clear, we LOVE making music, it is what we do, and despite some of its very apparent flaws, SXSW still provides a decent venue to be heard by some people who are really there to hear new music and not just do blow with dudes who wear square toe loafers.

It is a horrifying and gross reality when one sees the true nature of corporations and their pathetic attempts to achieve relevance with millennials. Doritos received a lot of flack for their stage a couple years ago, but i’m going to assume they paid Lady Gaga.

Oh, I almost forgot; “McDonald’s will offer free food to all audience members”

I don’t doubt that tons of bands will kowtow to this lame, lame attempt at a rock show. And I’m aware that to achieve any exposure is a Herculean task in 2015, but the Boethian Wheel is a real thing, and this will continue to exist if we, as artists, keep saying yes in exchange for a taste of success. Even if smells like a shitty Fish filet.’

The nice thing about the way this has played out, Ex Cops get to keep their integrity, they won’t have to play in a fucking McDonald’s and they get their music that “exposure” they were promised anyways.

Ex Cops are on Downtown Records and have collaborated with Ariel Pink and Billy Corgan. They’re excellent, give ‘em a listen at their Soundcloud page.
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
03.05.2015
01:54 pm
|
No Future for You: McDonald’s Cash Register Playset, a Toys’R'Us exclusive!
12.07.2012
12:42 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Make of this what you will…

The “Just Like Home” McDonald’s Cash Register 10 Piece Playset features a working cash register where you can hear your menu selections. Includes playfood, and a drive thru playset with headset with real working intercom and McDonald’s play money.

Toys’R’Us exclusive Just Like Home pretend play kitchens, grocery and restaurant toy play sets give your kids everything they need to become the next great celebrity or reality show super chef!

Or perhaps your child will aspire to become the a part of the growing minimum wage fastfood industry. Seven in ten jobs of the next decade will come from low wage sectors, so train ‘em now for that dead-end job that won’t even provide a living wage, that they’ll be LUCKY to get!

Forget “gender specific toys” and all of that stuff: What kind of fucked up message does this toy send? (“This is your lot in life, kid. Get used to it”?)

Serfdom USA. No surprise that Toys’R’Us is owned by Bain Capital.

Via Alternet

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
12.07.2012
12:42 pm
|
Not Loving It: McDonald’s make killing out of London 2012 Olympics

image
 
So much for an Olympics for the people.

This poster has allegedly been put up on London 2012 Olympic sites, notifying customers that chips (or French fries) will only be served with fish, “due to sponsorship obligations with McDonald’s”.

Fast food chain McDonald’s, along with Coca-Cola and Cadbury’s are among the main sponsors of this year’s Olympics, well that is, along with the British public who will be actually footing the bill.

Note - the original estimated costs of the London Olympics have increased tenfold from £2.4 billion to £24 billion.

McDonald’s will be supplying 10% of all meals served at the games, and under an exclusive deal with the International Olympic Committee, the burger chain have the sole rights to sell chips / fries at the event. This means any other of LOCOG’s (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) caterers can only sell chips with fish and not on their own. So much for the capitalist belief in free enterprise.

Och well, another fine example of how capitalism works - if you are a major company, you can pay in your fifty cents and fuck-up all the competition and customers. Nice. Especially when the Olympics are being underwritten by the public’s money. 
 
Via Reddit, with thanks to Kash Farooq, Jon Stone and Graham Linehan
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
07.11.2012
07:35 am
|
Life-size mummy made from McDonald’s food and resin
04.25.2012
02:23 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
 
Well this is thoroughly disgusting! Apparently this is a “mummy” made from McDonald’s hamburgers, other McDonald’s food items and resin by Texas-based artist Ben Campbell.

Ben says:

McDonald’s food doesn’t decompose if left to dry out. Seriously, just google it. As such archaeologists from the future will be digging this stuff up thousands of years in the future. Especially if something cataclysmic happens to our society.

Currently I have two McDonald’s food mummies completed and would like to make many more. Other works include preserved hamburgers in commercial plastic cases, McDonald’s food skulls, and large scale paintings.

I’m not sure how to process this. But “yuck” comes instantly to mind.

McDonald’s Food Mummy Art Show

Via BuzzFeed

Posted by Tara McGinley
|
04.25.2012
02:23 pm
|
Ronald McDonald is feeling McGuilty
08.06.2010
09:17 pm
Topics:
Tags:

image
McGuilty by JSalvador Design
 
(via Super Punch)

Posted by Tara McGinley
|
08.06.2010
09:17 pm
|
C’est la vie: Gay-friendly McDonald’s ad airs in France
06.03.2010
01:44 am
Topics:
Tags:

 
Have you seen the new “gay friendly” McDonald’s ad from France, yet? I suppose the message “Come as you are” is a positive one and the vignette itself is sweet enough, but what does this have to do with fast food anyway? Admittedly, it’s a huge improvement over utilizing a clown in an orange wig, yellow jumpsuit and huge shoes to market their processed meat products, but I can’t say it makes me want to visit a a McDonald’s. You?

Still, it’s worth noting that here in America, a gay dating website called Mancrunch.com couldn’t even pay to broadcast its message during the Super Bowl. In 2010. Seems like it’s our culture that’s French fried, n’est-ce pas?

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
|
06.03.2010
01:44 am
|