Racial hoax causes PR headache for McDonald’s

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout...-mcdonalds

An online hoax that falsely suggests McDonald's discriminates against African-American customers is causing a PR headache for the Golden Arches.

Over the weekend, the photograph above circulated widely on the internet. The image shows what looks like an official McDonald's notice in the window of a restaurant, telling customers that blacks will be charged $1.50 extra "as an insurance measure due in part to a recent string of robberies."

Many internet users retweeted the photo, using the words "Seriously McDonald's," to express their disapproval of the burger chain.

In response, McDonald's sent a tweet of its own on Saturday: "That pic is a senseless & ignorant hoax McD's values ALL our customers. Diversity runs deep in our culture on both sides of the counter."

But that clearly wasn't enough to clear things up, because Twitter users continued to send out the picture, with that same message of condemnation: "Seriously McDonald's." Indeed, so many people sent "Seriously McDonald's" Tweets that the phrase became a leading entry on Twitter's trend list.

That led to a second, blunter McTweet, on Sunday: "That Seriously McDonalds picture is a hoax."

The latest pushback effort seems to have helped keep the photo from spreading too much further--but there's no telling how many people out there still think the photo is for real.

This is hardly the only recent barrage of negative publicity for the burger behemoth--some of it more justified. McDonalds CEO Jim Skinner recently was forced to defend the company's renewed use of the Ronald McDonald mascot to appeal to children, after critics said the restaurant's fat-laden burgers and fries endanger kids' health.

It's not clear who created the hoax image. It appears to have first showed up on the popular 4chan message board, and it was posted last year on an anti-McDonald's blog.

But there's no doubt it's fake. As some Twitter users have pointed out, the toll-free number given at the bottom of the sign is actually the number for ... Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Wow, the things people believe.

Lol... I saw this being reblogged on Tumblr with obvious comments of people believing it... e_e

Come on, something this stupid should have been obvious.

Saw this in Basil (Though that TS still believed that it was real).

What makes this funnier is we all know african americans and latino's have a huge tiff.

>As some Twitter users have pointed out, the toll-free number given at the bottom of the sign is actually the number for ... Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Would have been more believable if it were a KFC sign for other reasons, eh?

-facepalm- Because it's safe to believe in EVERYTHING on the internet.

>As some Twitter users have pointed out, the toll-free number given at the bottom of the sign is actually the number for ... Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Would have been more believable if it were a KFC sign for other reasons, eh?

I think the idea was to get a slew of black people suddenly phoning in to KFC

I think the idea was to get a slew of black people suddenly phoning in to KFC

I like that.

I think the idea was to get a slew of black people suddenly phoning in to KFC

EVERYTHING makes sense now.

So how were these people smart enough to turn on the computer?

Even if this was real, isn't Mcdonalds franchise run? Allowing them to just pin the blame on that store's owner?

I think the idea was to get a slew of black people suddenly phoning in to KFC

omg......

-facepalm- Because it's safe to believe in EVERYTHING on the internet.

Seriously, KFC?

I think the idea was to get a slew of black people suddenly phoning in to KFC

Popeyes been through worse.
[video=youtube;8pyW6w5B7Aw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pyW6w5B7Aw[/video]

I hate to think that I'm going to one day have to write programs for these nutjobs to use. How do?

What kind of programs? If you manage to incorporate sometype of rifle's scope it should be the all cure of ignorance. Everyone evidently know's how to shoot a virtual gun.

when i saw it on tumblr i didnt know that it was a, what you would call a 'hoax', at all. o_o i was like 'haha, those tumblr people and their pranks!' and really thought it was just a tumblr prank and not very popular.

That picture is pretty old, too. Weird that it came back only recently to bite Mcdonald's in the ass.