One of the funniest ads in the Superbowl line-up was Nationwide Insurance's latest "life cames at you fast" series. Last year saw MC Hammer go from top of the pile to having everything repossessed in 5 minutes. This year, Kevin Federline, soon-to-be ex of Britney Spears, is depicted as having lost his rap career and ended up working in a fast-food restaurant.
You can see the ad at YouTube.
Well, as usual, someone's pissed. In this case it's the National Restaurant Association. President and CEO Steven Anderson has even written a letter (pdf) in which he talks about how the ad "gives the impression that working in a restaurant is demeaning and unpleasant."
Yeah, well, this may be news to you, sparky, but working in a fast food restaurant is often demeaning and unpleasant. There's a reason why it's mostly kids, and there's a reason why few stay for long, and there's a reason why almost nobody except that really weird 20-year old whose acne may clear up some day and who desperately covets every gold star on his badge considers it a career.
It's long hours, often for close to or actual minimum wage, where you get treated like shit by most customers and nearly all management. Just check out the experiences of a few ex-fry jockies who wrote the Flame Broiled website (not to mention the people who wrote in with encouragement) to see what I mean.
And the ad wasn't about merely working in Burger Hell, it was about ending up there after having been so much more. Anyone over the age of 25 who ends up flipping burgers for a multi chain has had some real bad luck, and I defy anyone to say different.
I realise that nobody wants their job out there being depicted as rotten, especially when it is rotten, and famously so, but get a sense of humour, please.
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