Mr. Anger was the editorial columnist for WWN, and he was often self-described as "pig-biting mad." His insight into what exactly was wrong with America and what needed to be done to fix said problem was nicely summed up in the title of his book Let's Pave the Stupid Rainforests & Give School Teachers Stun Guns: And Other Ways to Save America.
(Glen Beck and Michael Savage owe royalties, at the very least, for stealing Ed Anger's schtick.)
Well, today, and against all the better angels of my nature, I myself am pig-biting mad. What has put me in this frothingly porcine prandial frenzy is a two-part series of radio ads for Mcdonald's chicken breakfast biscuits that is in extremely heavy rotation in the southeastern Virginia market. I know this is a stupid thing to get apoplectic about, but read me out and see if you don't share at least a little bit of my ire.
See, the ads are premised on a dichotomy so false and a semiotics so insidious that the two logical linguistic fallacies combine with such force as to practically blow the top of head off.
In one version, a black man says, "I'm a city boy, but I love the South." In the other version, a black woman says, "I'm from the South, but I love the city." To scratch their respective itches, they go to McDonald's and eat chicken biscuits.
ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!
"The city" and "the South" are not comparable things; therefore, they cannot be set in opposition to each other. Miami, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Atlanta, and Charlotte are cities in the South.
Plus, since when does "South" mean "soul food," which is what this chicken biscuit obstensibly is? That's the damnablest part of the ad campaign. McDonald's and its advertising agency assume that radio listeners will hear the word "South" and think "poor, rural, and black." Why would anyone assume that? Why would anyone actually make that mental connection?
It would be different if McDonald's were introducing Frito Pie desserts or the Possum McRib sandwich (with the Armadillo McRib sandwich in the American Southwest). How about the Watermelon Milkshake? The Chitlin McNuggets? A Squab Breakfast Biscuit? But Jehosaphat! the company isn't even being that ingenuous.
Instead, McDonald's is actively creating, and concommitantly marketing to, a new stereotype: the black urban professional who wants to pretend to eat like a rural fieldworker.
I can't stop them, but I sure can get all Ed Angry on their ass.
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