Advertising Then and Now: Evil Grimace
And now for something completely different:
Yes, this was the original Grimace. While he’s changed a lot since, apparently his intellect didn’t go up any, considering he stole the empty cups from McDonald’s.
You think that’s bad? Ronald’s first appearance is about 100 times creepier.
There’s no way an ad like this would fly today, although not for any objectionable content (nightmare-fuel E. Grimace aside) It’s simply not permissible to direct advertising at kids.
Personally though, I think there’s a major advertising opportunity to create a movie called “Return to McDonald Land”. Just have a bunch of kids return to McDonald Land as adults. It’d be advertising and cinematic gold even if (or especially if) it’s horrible.
As the long weekend is coming up, no polls this Friday. (Unless we get a lot of comments, in which case expect an edit.) Happy Valentine’s Day!
Tags: 70's, advertising, advertising then and now, Evil Grimace, McDonald's, Original Ronald McDonald, Ronald McDonald
February 12th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
the old Ronald is more akin to John Wayne Gacy’s clown costume..creepy.
http://www.executedtoday.com/images/John_Wayne_Gacy_Pogo_the_clown.jpg
February 12th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
This actually makes some random knowledge I already had make more sense. I heard somewhere that Grimace was a taste-bud, and I was only really familiar with the fuzzy purple version of Grimace so I didn’t understand how that could be right. Seeing this grotesque slimy reddish version of him makes it all so clear now.