McDonald's Philippines wins praise for queer-inclusive video ad

McDonald’s Philippines has unveiled a new video ad featuring a lesbian couple to support the LGBTQ+ community, as part of its commitment to embracing diversity, equity and inclusivity.  

In celebration of this year's Pride month, McDonald's launched the campaign video on 29 May and it has then gone viral online, garnering over 45,000 views on YouTube and 321k likes on Facebook in less than a week.

According to media intelligence company CARMA, sentiments of social conversations around the commercial are largely positive at 33%. Words such as "sweet" and "wholesome" have been heavily associated with the campaign, with netizens complimenting McDonald’s for portraying Sapphic love in a normalised context.

One of the netizens who praised the campaign online was Miss Universe Philippines 2023, Michelle Dee, who recently came out as bisexual, also expressed her support for the commercial ring it on her Twitter page. 

However, some netizens also took to Twitter to express their disappointment for creating queer inclusive advertisements only during Pride month where it's deemed strategic for the business to be supportive of the cause, a check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE confirmed. One user, as seen below, said that doing so is a "typical big company scheme during pride [month]."

Other than 'pride-washing', some netizens have begun boycotting McDonalds and comparing them to other brands that promote family values while deeming McDonald's' immoral. 

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Adi Hernandez, the corporate relations director of McDonald’s Philippines, noted the importance of gender inclusivity in the daily lives of people. Reported by ABS-CBN News, Hernandez said that it was important to portray this love story through a normalised lens. He went on to add that gender inclusivity is central to the McDonald's brand. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to McDonald's Philippines for more information on the campaign. 

McDonald's is committed to actively fostering an inclusive environment, where diversity is embraced as an advantage. For example, the company closed the small pay gaps identified in our 2021 pay gap analysis. The 2021 analysis showed it had already substantially attained equal pay for women globally in company-owned and operated markets, who were paid on average US$0.9985 for every US$1 to men for comparable work, and that there was not a pay gap disfavoring underrepresented groups in the U.S.

Reflecting its continued investment in LGBTQ+ awareness, rights and equity, in 2021, McDonald’s signed the Human Rights Campaign Business Coalition for the Equality Act. In 2022, McDonald’s scored 100% on the Equality Index for the seventh year in a row. 

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