#157 No Appetite for McDonald’s Humor in Italy
During the summer of 2019, Italians’ didn’t show much appetite for a meal from American fast food giant McDonald’s. The reason was a failed attempt at being funny in another, neighboring market – Austria. While McDonald’s promotions in the United States often focus on price and value, it has become common in other countries to lure customers to its stores with special promotion weeks that feature limited-time, unique menu items. In Austria, such campaigns included, for instance, the “Maennerwochen” (“Guys Weeks”) during which it offers burgers with extra bacon, meat, or cheese that particularly appeal to a male audience.. In addition, McDonald’s advertising in Austria is known for its often humorous plays on words. In July 2019, it was time again for such a special promotion. In rolling out their Italian-inspired, limited-time menu that included items such as Mozzarella sticks or the “Chicken Amore” sandwich with fresh basil, McDonald’s added to their billboard advertising what they thought was a funny slogan: “Fuer echte Mampfiosi”. What translates into “For real Mampfiosi” is a play on the German word “Mampf” (meaning “to chow down”) and mafiosi – of course referring to Italy’s infamous criminal organization. Italy’s social media-savvy Interior Minister Matteo Salvini quickly took up the cause on his Facebook page, lamenting the use of the common, unflattering stereotype by McDonald’s. Soon thereafter, the Italian Newspaper La Repubblica reported on the issue, and foreign media in various countries were fast to pick up the story. Faced with growing pressure from Italian consumers and the media, McDonald’s Austria reacted swiftly and took down the billboards. Their new slogan, “Fuer echte Amici” (“For true friends”) seems to be a much better fit for the Italian palate…
March 21, 2020 @ 3:15 pm
McDonald’s marketing mission among the world is very diverse and country-specific. To me, it appears they are doing a good job in evaluation of customer’s preferences as well as the way they are putting their advertising campaigns out there. Even though, I am personally not a huge fan of McDonald’s in general, I always have to smile about their humorous and very creative plays with words in Austrian campaigns.
I remember the “For Real Mampfiosi” – campaign and I thought it was not very appropriate, because someone would not necessarily connect the Mafia with something to eat and it represents also a more or less “negative” part of Italy. Therefore, I think Salvini’s reaction was justified and Mc Donald’s alternative “Für echte Amici” fits better, because as Austrians, we like the Italians as our neighbors. I am sure, Austria would not be so happy either, if there would be a campaign out there for Kaiserschmarrn at McDonald’s with a slogan like “How to survive in a basement” or something similar. I do not think it is a good advertising strategy to take advantage of a country’s negative example, even though it’s what they are famous for.
March 24, 2020 @ 8:53 pm
My first reaction when reading the slogan “für echte Mampfiosi” was laughing because I found it a creative and funny play on words. To me the word “mampfen” which relates to be very hungry and to eating greedily in combination with the legendary Italian criminal organization Mafia triggers associations with old-style Hollywood movies about the Mafia in the United States and the male characters typically representing those characters. I think it is a pity that McDonalds had to change the slogan because I do not see anything insulting in it. It is well known that Italy had and still has a problem with criminal Mafia structures, but it is also well known that the majority of Italians have nothing to do with it and moreover disapprove it. In addition, this slogan was created for a campaign dedicated to guys “Guys Weeks”. Therefore, I think one should leave the “Kirche im Dorf” as we use to say in Austria, which means we should not overestimate the problem. I am afraid that if we continue this route, it will ultimately kill creativity because we have to apply creativity censorship to avoid potentially hurting someone`s feelings.
I think – since we are all different with different biographies – naturally we will not approve or disapprove the same things. I think society should allow a certain grey zone to be allowed for plays on words or jokes, even if some groups feel offended.
March 31, 2020 @ 10:28 am
Well-thought-out marketing campaigns, like the one described in this very blog-entry, can truly cause a smile on many customers’ lips, make them think about it as well as lure them into shops or restaurants, in order to check out the advertised product. Creating a marketing-campaign can also turn out as a disaster when marketing people not doing their homework properly. It, moreover, should be common sense that the more south one goes, the prouder people get about their country and, especially, its history as well as culture.
When shifting focus again to McDonald’s ads for their Italian-inspired food items in Austria, it was just a matter of time until Italians would recognize and complain about the campaign. From personal experiences, research and conversations with friends from Italy, I know that Italians are very proud of their country and the Mafia there is still active. Therefore, making fun of the identity and culture of Italians as well as the country’s structures led to that outrage. This example shows that if McDonald’s marketing employees did a better job on doing research on Italy when forging a marketing campaign, outrage and negative publicity could have easily been prevented.
April 7, 2020 @ 11:40 am
Further to my previous comment I would like to point out that I think the problem with the name McMampfiosi in Italy was that most Italians do not understand the German word “mampfen”. I think if they would understand it, they would find the name creation actually funny too. However, from the side of McDonalds they should have been more aware that jokes on words are usually only fully understood in the country where that language is spoken. In that sense, although I still think it is a creative idea, I would have recommended to the company to use a different name for selling the product in Italy.
April 20, 2020 @ 3:07 am
McDonald’s is one of the largest companies in the world. They have more than 37,850 restaurants worldwide in 120 countries serving more than 68 million customers each day. One of the challenges of being this size is managing marketing campaigns. Over the last few years we have seen some cases where major companies got in loads of trouble for offensive advertising campaigns or products like H&M for example. In many countries, McDonalds is known for their fun advertisements but in Austria, they pushed it too far by having a play on words about the ‘mafia’. In my opinion, the Italians had the right to be angry as McDonald’s has one million other options for marketing campaign slogans. I believe that they made the right decision by changing it and the new slogan is in much better taste. Moving forward I think that it is appropriate that their marketing department shift with the times as the world is becoming hypersensitive to comments that may come off as offensive. My suggestion is to have multiple marketing directors in each country that have to sign off on new ads in order to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.
April 20, 2020 @ 7:14 am
To me this slogan represents the two things; first the changing sensitivities of humor today and the impact of social media on today’s advertising strategy. I think that consumers can make a big deal out of their own interpretations because they have a voice now that is louder than ever before in the past due to social media. Also I believe because of this voice people have become more sensitive especially when it comes to humor. Play on words and marketing humor is always a good strategy because it signifies that there was careful thought put into place. I do agree however that the issue here is that the humor is based on a negative stereotype. Also companies must consider the cultural reception and humor that best fits their international marketing strategy so seemingly small play on words like this one will not come back to hurt them later. – Phillip