The House of Ronald McDonald

Watch this.

Now. Did the music move you? Are you crying already? Now that you saw this, will you go out and buy a Big Mac?

Last year, McDonald's launched a campaign in Helsinki. This year they're doing the same thing. Suddenly 50 % of bus stop ads show a sentimental picture of two models with a little girl wandering somewhere in the countryside: An ill child can take a family far from home. Ronald McDonald House gives home to ill children.

Okay. Let's see. One of the world's most destructive corporations is suddenly doing something good and compassionate? Great! But why are they telling this to us so loudly? Why the ads? Why are the ads everywhere? Are we all supposed to go and book rooms in 'Ronald McDonald House'?

Of course not. The point of these campaigns is, quite simply, to use us. 'Children' is a magic word, you see. They say 'ill children' and we become numb and stupid. They say 'ill children' so that we lose our fragile rationality and start believing that, actually, McDonald's must not be evil. McDonald's must be good!

I mean... ill children!

The only point of these campaigns is to make us buy more Big Macs. Every ten-trillionth cent will 'help the children'. All the other cents will fill the bottomless bank accounts of the richest, most cold-blooded men on Earth.

When I was 11, I used to love McDonald's. Of course I did. All children love McDonald's. The food is yummy and greasy. The commercials and advertisements are everywhere. The clown is cool. When I was 11, the highpoint of my week was Friday afternoon when my dad brought me a bag of McDonald's food.

Then when I was 15, I found painful information. It made me realize that I couldn't keep doing this anymore. I had to choose.

I still think that McDonald's food is tasty. If there was no moral dilemma, I'd eat that shit all the time. I like unhealthy food. That's my thing. But when I was 15, I had to choose between what tastes good and what is right.

I chose the latter. And now I eat seitan burgers; they are yummy and greasy, too.

A while ago I stumbled upon this sentence that 200 000 hipsters on Tumblr seemed to agree with: 

Do not associate with people who think they are too good for McDonald's.

I'm sorry, 200 000 hipsters.

I am too good for McDonald's.

I think that what they do to people, the animals and the planet is unbearably cruel. Knowing WHAT THEY DO every second of every day is so painful that sometimes I almost find it difficult to go on living; in terms of suffering, McDonald's is one of the biggest criminals on this planet. Few things are as violent as the way McDonald's treats the most vulnerable individuals in the world.

If you're poor, they'll exploit and abuse you. If you're a cow, a bird, or a pig, they'll cage you, they'll torture you, they'll dismember you, and then they'll kill you. If a rain forest is your home, they'll come and cut your home down. And then they'll leave you lying in blood. Dead or alive. They don't care.

I've heard that in the 90's, being young and cool meant that you boycotted industries like this. Now, 20 years later the young and cool struggle to understand the point of being good. Being bad is romantic, right?

Sigh. What happened to us?

I don't know if I'm good. But I know that I'm too good for this.