PTC doesn’t want McDonald’s ads on during Family Guy…but how will I know what to eat?

Ok, now it’s getting personal. The Parents Television Council going after my favorite cartoons like Golan the Insatiable, Family Guy, and Archer is one thing…BUT GOING AFTER MY FOOD IS ANOTHER!

The PTC has started a petition that they intend to email addressed to McDonalds’ CMO Deborah Wahl, and let her know that they don’t appreciate the fact that Mickey D’s is advertising during Family Guy, a show they claim packages and commercializes rape, pedophilia, and sexual perversion. The feeling from the PTC is that the content from Family Guy is negatively impacting McDonalds’ sales and that the brand is losing customers.

Now here’s a take from a guy who has a degree in Business…me. And yes, the PTC is right about one thing…McDonalds’ revenues have been declining. According to Forbes, US sales are down almost 3% and European sales are down almost 9% with total overall operating profits dropping close to 30%.

Unfortunately for the PTC, they clearly have no idea why profits at McDonalds are dropping – and yea, it has nothing to do with Family Guy. Instead, revenues have dropped in Europe following consumers’ general awareness of what is in some of the products that are used in the restaurant, with reports of ingredients like horse meat used in place of cow beef in hamburgers. Here in the States, I think an overall increase in consumer options in terms of not only healthier foods, but better-tasting versions of McDonalds’ menu items, are all contributions to lower revenues for the restaurant that Ronald McDonald built. Gone are the days where consumers want quick food, instead they’d rather wait for the food and get better quality. In McDonalds’ ashes, the rise of fast-casual chains like Five Guys, Chipotle, and others have taken hold of consumer taste, and as such, money is being spent elsewhere.

So unless the PTC can prove that people in Europe and America are having their minds changed about where they eat because of anything to do with Family Guy, then I suggest they shut their front door. Chances are consumers have quite a few more reasons as to why they don’t want to eat at Mickey D’s nowadays.