In the 70 years since McDonald’s began its service industry hegemony, the mighty Golden Arches have achieved something few brands do; integrate a self-proliferating part of speech into the vernacular of everyone in the developed world—the “McJob”.
Whether you need to dry your eyes at a funeral or rescue your nose during the flu, people offer you a Kleenex® vis-á-vis a “tissue”. Need a photocopy and it becomes the verb “to Xerox®”…in fact, you most likely “Googled” your way here no matter what search engine you employed…or you Tivo’d last night’s episode of Lost…even on a Motorola DVR.
But…the world’s most popular clown isn’t exactly thrilled about this. According to News24.com, there is a movement afoot to ‘Ditch McJobs’ says McDonalds.
McDonald’s sites are now targeted at Britain’s dictionary houses to change current references to the word “McJob” ….. “Dictionaries are supposed to be paragons of accuracy. And in this case, they got it completely wrong,” said Walt Riker, a McDonald’s spokesperson. “It’s a complete disservice and incredibly demeaning to a terrific work force and a company that’s been a jobs and opportunity machine for 50 years.”
MEEK SPEAKS: So here’s the thing. I get that it’s kind of a demeaning term, but that’s because… the kids who work at McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Arby’s, etc HATE these jobs. The jobs just suck. You’re running around in a tiny kitchen wearing a goofy uniform wrapping hamburgers (don’t even get me started on how asinine it is that they call them “sandwiches” when they’re clearly “burgers”) while all the hot girls are lined up on the other side of the counter to order a milkshake and giggling at you as your floor manager barks orders to “fry up!” or “hold the pickle!”. It’s the employees who started calling these McJobs. I know this because my sister worked at McDonald’s…I know this because my friend used to work at a fried chicken place. Is this really worth McDonald’s efforts to bully the Oxford English Dictionary to remove the term because they don’t like it? Not only do I say no because it’s futile, but it makes the corporate empire of McDonald’s look even more ridiculous than they did when they launched that McRib thingy. Oh, and also, how many people with McJobs even look in a dictionary anyway?
3 Comments
March 28, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Meeker… I don’t follow your point regarding corporate proliferation of words into the common vernacular… guess I’ll Rollerblade downtown and Fed-Ex you a package…. but seriously… you’d think McDonald’s would be happy their employees cut across such a broad base in North America that a word has evolved to describe them… bet Wal Mart aspires to such a lofty perch in the popular culture. One thing which should encourage McDonald’s employees (and keep both your sister and Tara from deep-frying you)…is that apparently what most fortune 500 senior executives have in common is that they worked at McDonalds. Another benefit on a more personal level… is my son Joseph… may have reduced focus on any starter job he has.. not being referred to as a ‘Joe-job’.
Best McDonald’s experience ever… on a cold day in Vienna, Austria… went into the golden arches and had a steaming bowl of bortsch and a Mc Beer. Not kidding … a Mc Beer.
Mc Beautiful.
March 28, 2007 at 3:07 pm
there’s no question i’m rather promiscuous when it comes to my dictionary…you’ve made some great points in your post, but i believe there is already a term for wal-mart employees—seniors! hah! i kill me.
that’s interesting that your son is already feeling the pain of terms like ‘average joe’ and ‘joe job’…perhaps i’ve misjudged this entire situation and should applaud McDonald’s for their citizenry…nah.
June 28, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I completely agree.