Look at this:

McDonald’s ad campaign – The Onion, 2019

This here was the moment when the health-conscious folk came out of the woodwork and responded by saying they indeed CAN run forever… or this was the moment when all the communists in the world held a rally proclaiming the wickedness of capitalist propaganda… or this was the moment when fries people made their voices heard…… or, and hear me out here, this was the moment when McDonald’s became Heisenberg.

My point is that each of these options (and others, I’m sure) must have aligned with at least one person some time or other since the release of this image. When interpreting an image, it is widely understood that the sender’s job is to encode the intended message, and the receiver’s is to decode it. Naturally, the decoding process always yields different results – the world sucks that way.

Let’s peel it back further by first asking the question: what is there? Well, there’s a burger made of either ham or cheese (how does it work?). There also appears to be a fancy ‘m’ in the corner – whatever that means. And there are words present: ‘You can’t run from us forever’. All that’s missing now are the blood stains, but I digress.

In terms of what it all means, well, that’s up to the receiver. 

When it comes to promotional material, the sender’s job typically is to portray only one message. In this case, the message is that there is no escape from McDonald’s. Yes, this promotional image was a threat. The blood stains are warranted. Add them now. 

This was confirmed by McDonald’s senior manager of global corporate communications Terri Hickey, who is quoted here alongside the ad campaign: “Despite the trend toward calorie counting, green eating, and plant-based diets, we at McDonald’s will track you down—and we will feed you”, said Liam Neeson. They continued: “You’re on your high horse now, but you know that won’t last forever.”

Now, this would seem to put the nail in the interpreting coffin. But wait, there’s more!

When analysing signs within an image, analysers often refer to signifiers (things that give meaning) and what is signified (evoked in the mind). Author David Pavón Cuéllar puts it this way in his 2010 book From The Conscious Interior To An Exterior Unconscious:  “There is a fictitious understanding of an imaginary signified, which is passively determined, distorted, changed, replaced, reconstituted, re-created, symbolised. And all of this is accomplished by the signifying symbolic, which is actively determining, distorting, etc (the activity being designated by the present participle)” (p. 46-47). If you can’t comprehend the above quote any better than I can, please see the alternative explanation above it.

Now let’s utilise this concept using the example at hand. 

Even without Hickey’s input, the conclusion he confirms is one that can easily be made when considering the signifiers displayed within the image. The foreboding red void that fills the space, drawing all attention to the ham-filled/cheese-filled burger. This is an ominous symbol of the ever-stubborn presence of McDonald’s, which is what is signified.

However, it is true that other conclusions can be made, no matter how outlandish many of them likely would be (for this is the world we live in). This image really could refer to anything, depending on the perspective – many of which I alluded to in my intro. There are a million, likely better, examples of this – most of which don’t even come with an explanation. Interpretation remains as varied as ever no matter what the product is, and even with professional systems put in place.

References

2019, “McDonald’s Appealing To Health-Conscious Consumers With New ‘You Can’t Run From Us Forever’ Ad Campaign” The Onion, 17 Sep https://www.theonion.com/mcdonald-s-appealing-to-health-conscious-consumers-with-1838181744

Cuéllar, From the Conscious Interior to an Exterior Unconscious : Lacan, Discourse Analysis and Social Psychology, 2008 (p. 46-47)