Since its humble beginnings in the 1940s, the McDonalds franchise has grown to become a globally recognized fast food restaurant. It now serves around 64 million customers in 119 countries each day. Because of its bright color scheme and recognizable mascots, McDonalds has found a place in fan art. It has also earned the dubious honor of being the subject of propaganda art.
Ronald McDonald’s Wife
Ronald McDonald, the franchise’s clown mascot, wears a red and white striped shirt beneath a yellow waistcoat, a red curly wig and a red nose. The mascot is displayed in nearly every form of McDonalds advertising and media. The picture below shows an artist’s interpretation of what Ronald McDonald’s wife would look like, basing her clothing and make-up on the McDonalds clown mascot.
source:artstyleonline
Why so Happy Meal?
In a spoof of the Joker character played by actor Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, the Joker is shown dressed as Ronald McDonald. This fan art throws a shadow on the normally cheerful McDonalds characters, parodying the Joker’s favorite phrase, “Why so serious?” with “Why so Happy Meal?”
source:vi.sualize.us
Ronald McDonald gets Super Sized
Ron English promotes propaganda through his art works, encouraging the public to take a good hard look at many of the things that we take for granted. In the piece shown below, English portrays the Ronald McDonald mascot as an overweight clown. This is a comment on the obesity epidemic that is currently taking place in America, pointing a very chubby, super sized finger at McDonalds food as a direct cause of the weight problems.
source:upperplayground
Death by French Fries
In the documentary film, Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock conducted an experiment to determine the life span of McDonalds menu items. The McDonalds french fry was portrayed as being near immortal, barely degrading even though weeks had passed. Though the artist’s intention with the food art work below is not clear, there is a definite link between the seemingly innocent french fry and death. Perhaps the message is that McDonald’s french fries are so far from being organic that the food itself is dead.
source:neatorama
Ronald McDonald the Obese
In another controversial art work, the art has depicted the Ronald McDonald clown as being grossly obese. The art work comments on the fact that though McDonalds fast food has been linked to obesity, the McDonalds media characters are slender and healthy.
source:jgaver
McDonalds Fats Food Restaurant
This street art sticker shows an obese man eating the McDonalds mascot. A banner across the graffiti image proclaims “FATS FOOD”, a parody of the type of food that McDonalds serves; fast food.
source:thoughtbrain
McDonalds Food Art Animals
The food art work below shows two creatures that have been made out of McDonalds food items and packaging. On the left is a crab-like animal made from french fries, battling against what looks like a cockroach made out of wire and a McDonalds tomato ketchup sachet.
source:supremeplate
