Over the weekend, many people became acquainted with this photo for the first time. It’s a hoax: McDonald’s isn’t charging African-American McDonald’s customers an extra $1.50 “as an insurance measure due in part to a recent string of robberies.” Nevertheless, the pic seems to have caused yet another PR problem for the dream McJob-generating giant of fast foods.According to various sources on the Twitter, the picture is an old meme first posted on the 4chan message board. The photo also shows up in this blog post, dated June 17, 2010, on the website McServed. Yet somehow it began recirculating a few days ago, causing much alarm. On the Twitter, people tweeted and retweeted the photo, using the words “Seriously McDonalds” to express their disappointment with the fast-food chain.
On Saturday, McDonald’s addressed the photo in a tweet of its own: “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.” For the rest of the day, the company replied to only two concerned Twitterers. Some people saw the McTweet—but many more, it seems, did not. If you were on the Twitter earlier today, you would have noticed that “Seriously McDonalds” had achieved a place on its “Trends” list.
Today, McDonald’s took to its Twitter once again: “That Seriously McDonalds picture is a hoax.” No matter: the picture kept spreading around as the afternoon went on, with many people upset at what they thought was a for-real photo. And who can blame them? The Internet has shown us that anything’s possible.
Keep it real, how many of you all were mad as hell when you first saw this pic?? Did you think it was a hoax to begin with??
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