No Such Thing As Bad Publicity

[Canary42]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50251779

In my humble opinion this sort of event should be hit with highly punitive fines - it is obviously a publicity stunt of the sort which B*n*tt*n perfected over the years. It gets the Company a wide level of free publicity that would cost billions.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/jun/18/advertising.marketingandpr

[davebro]

hm - is the word "bloody" generally recognisable in Portugal? So it was aimed at English speakers Bad vibes McD!

[ummmm]

It's not offensive (I'm Irish) especially in Portugal. They were probably thinking of the U2 song without paying attention to the lyrics.

What was more offensive is a pub in London selling Sunday Bloody Sunday cocktails with a little plastic army man!

[4candles]

McDonald's said the marketing campaign was not intended to be an "insensitive reference to any historical event".

Yeah right...

[ichkeria]

The U2 song is about Bloody Sunday ...

[ichkeria]

It’s a very odd think to call a dessert. Obviously fine with no thought other than “what goes with Sundae? Oh I know: bloody.
I think the Derry Bloody Sunday is itself named after the St Petersburg Bloody Sunday

[retrocop]

It was a well known whisper amongst Police officers on the mainland and our colleagues in the RUC during the troubles that McDonalds was a large contributor to Noraid. To this day I wont step across the threshold of that establishment.

[Old_Geezer]

I doubt it was intentional. Bad publicity is only really useful if relatively unknown. Otherwise getting one's name noticed is as likely to drive folk away as it is to attract the curious. Not a risk worth taking. American company, Portuguese establishment, wouldn't mean much there.

[ummmm]

Ich..that's why I said they haven't really listened to the lyrics. It's more likely to be from the song than it is about the troubles.

[jackthehat]

Obviously a campaign designed by someone who has heard the words and has no idea of the events behind them.

I thought the McDonalds/IRA nonsense had been put to bed years ago.

[Mamyalynne]

Poor choice all round, so many other inventive Halloween type names for it.

Certainly a hefty donation to a Portuguese charity would be an idea.

[Ellipsis]

When (as I did this week) you watch an episode of The Apprentice and an entire team of candidates does not know the year that WWII started between them, it's hardly surprising that some young marketing buck thinks that "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is about any old Sunday.

[Spicerack]

Agreed^. And with ummmm and JTH.