McDonald's 1969 Advertisement

The “Jimmy Just Knows They’re Good” advertisement by McDonald’s was published on magazines all throughout the United States during 1969.

The advertisement was published during the time McDonald’s started becoming less of a family business and more of a corporation. This is evident as The McDonald brothers sold their business rights to the Kroc’s company in 1961. This is also the time when Kroc’s marketing department decides to advertise McDonald’s specifically to families and children. The main idea of this advertisement is to show that McDonald’s is healthy, that their restaurant is a suitable place to take families and kids, and to show it’s rising popular as it has sold over a million quality burgers.

The McDonald’s company points out several themes within the article. First, is the theme of being reliable and healthy. Throughout the 1950s, people rarely ate at fast food places and it was seen as a rare treat. Since, eating fast food wasn’t a daily thing, there wasn’t a significant health concern at the time. Also, this advertisement was before the introduction of the “Big Meal” or the notion of ordering a hamburger with fries and a drink, so the portions were more controlled. The advertisement was created to appeal to families and to have them believe the quality of food was good enough for their kids to eat. McDonald’s also introduces the McDonald’s mascot, Ronald McDonald in 1963 to help attract kids. Not only does McDonald’s want to project how clean and sustainable their products are, but they are also trying to advertise McDonald’s as a fun place to bring children. The tone of this advertisement is light hearted but fairly informative and convincing. It seeks to emphasize with parents and children with a picture of a smiling child eating a burger and marketing his mother’s approval. The idea of McDonald targeting a certain demographic and advertising their fast food as healthy even if it’s not and a mother and child endorsing the product correlates to the idea that the creator of the advertisement had a bias.

This advertisement connects to the general knowledge of fast food at the time. For example, back in the 1960s American home dinners were not nutritious as well. So at the time, not a lot of people at the time can tell if fast food was healthy or not. Regardless, home cooked meals undoubtedly had the potential to be healthier as salt, oil and everything prepared were controlled. The bias comes from the fact that the advertisement has a child and parent endorsing the product. Childhood obesity was not an alarming issue at the time, but parents probably did not think McDonald’s was necessarily healthy for their children. This was a time period where both parents are assumingly working jobs away from home, so parents may agree that McDonald’s meals are good as in they are fast and convenient, but parents probably did not agree that the food was healthy for their children.

The ideas in this source differs from the ideas of our time because if McDonald’s were to place an advertisement with a child and a parent endorsing their food today, there would be a lot of opposition. There is a significant difference from how McDonald’s was infrequently consumed in the 1960s to how it is consumed now, as people eat McDonald’s on an everyday basis. Today, there are health issues such as diabetes and obesity that are tied with McDonald’s that would cause controversy with an advertisement like this. Also nowadays, the advertisement for McDonald’s would probably not include a White child on the cover, as McDonald’s would try to relate to more of the Hispanic presence in the United States. Just like how the advertising department in McDonald’s targeted a favored demographic of the American family at the time, they would also do the same with the rising Hispanic presence in the United States today. In the 1969, there was a small percentage of the Hispanic presence, but now there is an exponential increase of the Hispanic presence, therefore making it a valued demographic.

Advertisements like the McDonald’s “Jimmy Just Knows Their Good,” helped the McDonald’s company gain favor by advertising the food as healthy, sustainable and family-oriented. Advertisements like this serve as historical evidence that in the past, there was not a significant health concern for fast food and that fast food was enjoyed through infrequent visits and sensible portion sizes. And due to most people entering the job force during the Post World War II era, the innovation of fast food was accepted very positively, especially to parents who don’t have time or energy to cook a meal for their families after working. The creator of the advertisement saw the potential to target a specific demographic that approved of fast food, and ultimately helped McDonald’s win over many families and children to eat at their restaurants through successful advertising.

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