McDonald's obviously has a giant warchest full of funds built on the backs of bulging, clogged arteries, so it comes as no surprise to me that they have a unique menu for the second largest economy in the world (as well as most other markets, McShawarma anyone?). It does, however surprise me that they localize their ads to the point of homogenization, and make "traditionally crazy" ads that you would never have guessed belong to a US-based company. Even if they hired a Japanese ad agency (which I'm sure they did) it's still amazing, what with the ever-fickle and saturated with culturally-singular Japanese market the way it was when McDonald's debuted attained the market penetration it did. For some reason I find Mickey Ds' Japanese ads really entertaining, even amongst other 'wacky' Japanese ads I've seen over the years. Here are a few notables that people have uploaded to Youtube:
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Well McD has never shied away from changing the menu to fit the local tastes and market. Heck their in India where they don't sell any hamburgers at all, it's all veggie, chicken and fish. In India they even deliver.
Wow, I wrote that really late, and it shows. >< I meant that I WASN'T surprised that the food was localized, but I WAS surprised (way back when I discovered it, not now) that their ads are virtually indistinguishable from a Japanese company's ads. Even though I'm sure they hired a Japanese agency to make them, the assimilation of the products/brand into J-culture is pretty uncanny, especially in a market that's hyper-fickle and saturated by its own culture's products for the most part. I've changed the article to reflect this. -_-;
And I actually didn't know that about India, though I would've guessed something like that would be true. The delivery thing is surprising as well. =) Thanks for the info!
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