McDonald's pulls Ad After Pit Bull Owner Outrage

by Emily Sutherlin | February 7, 2012 at 06:25 pm

187 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

In a McDonald's advertisement that featured the new Chicken McBites and a pit bill with a question, "Which one is safer?"

According to a new McDonald's ad commercial, eating chicken nuggets is safer than petting a pit bull. The ad also said eating a Chicken McBite was less risky than shaving your head, naming your son Sue or giving friends your Facebook password. It enraged pit bull owners and their supporters.

The radio ad only aired in Kansas City for a few days before McDonald's started receiving complaints. The campaign against the ad ran on social media sites, so to apologize, people who called a well publicized phone number received a recorded apology.

The ad was insensitive in its mention of pit bulls. We apologize. As soon as we learned of it, we tracked the source and had the local markets pull the ad immediately. We'll do a better job next time. It's never our intent to offend anyone with how we communicate news about McDonald's...

"I found it extremely offensive and reckless," said Rachele Lizarraga of Sacramento. "Why would you try to promote the safety of food?"

Lizarraga, who owns a pet-sitting business and is social media coordinator for Chako Pit Bull Rescue, started a Facebook page called "Pit Bulls Against McDonald's," and launched an online petition calling for an end to the ad and started one of many Twitter threads. Many of the 8,200-plus people who liked the Facebook page said an apology wasn't enough — they wanted a donation to some pit bull organizations and a McDonald's ad featuring a pit bull.

Others said an apology was enough.

But since we're punishing everyone else, like M.I.A, we should give everyone who can't just shut the hell up the same punishment, right?

The only thing I've learned from this is not to piss off pit bull owners, or basically anyone too sensitive to take a joke. The next time a company features an ad driving a car I'm going to get butthurt and start a campaign against the company for emitting fumes into the O-Zone.