Would you be bothered by commercial promotions at this time? Why?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m on a few internet survey lists. Every once in a while, they’ll send me a survey, I’ll fill it out, and my name is entered in a drawing for cash prizes or something.

I just received a survey that got me curious simply because it’s a question that I never would have even thought to ask. The question is, “Do you feel that it is appropriate or inappropriate for companies to be running promotions at this time?” meaning, of course, during this war.

I thought, “Well, it may not be advisable. Your ads could be pulled at any time for more war coverage, and the economy is in the toilet, anyway, so people are less likely to spend money on anything, but is it appropriate? Well, it’s certainly not inappropriate.” Frankly, I don’t care much what companies do. Capitalizing on the war would be a bit crass, but an unrelated commercial? Life does go on, after all.

It turns out that McDonald’s has been planning yet another one of those promotions where you buy food and peel off a sticker to see if you’ve won a prize. So, they wanted to know if they should go ahead full on with the promotion, with ads and everything, just run the promotion without ads, or scrap the plan completely.

(The promotion has nothing to do with the war. I do think that McDonald’s running a “When the US wins, you win!” promotion that gives free food if you hold a ticket with a successful bombing site would be inappropriate–yet I am strangely amused by the idea.)

Are there people who really would be offended that McDonald’s would dare run such a promotion “when there’s a WAR on!”? McDonald’s must think that it’s a possibility, or else they wouldn’t have done such a survey. Do people expect the world to stop? Is there something I’m missing here? I don’t watch TV much, and I’ve been avoiding it even more lately. Would other company promotions be more/less appropriate?

At the end of the survey, they asked how confident you were that the US was doing the right thing by being in Iraq. I checked “not very confident”, which was one step up from “not confident at all”. Maybe that makes a difference…or, maybe not.

2

I don’t think that advertisement in general is wrong. I did see an ad for a figurine in the Sunday supplement in my paper. It was a teddy bear in army fatigues, surrounded by sandbags and holding a combat rifle. First, I thought it’s wrong because teddy bears are a symbol of childhood and innocence, then I thought it’s wrong that someone is already capitalizing on this war. But other advertising and promotions, I don’t see the point in not doing them. I mean, stopping the promotions won’t help anything in anyway, will it? And continuing with the promotions won’t make the war last longer or anything, will it? So, while I think it’s tacky for people to be capitalizing on the war itself, I don’t have a problem with general promotions right now.