The US fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s has pledged to remove an advertisement for its new McCrispy chicken sandwich that was placed across from a crematorium in England.
The McCrispy advertisement was placed at a bus stop in Cornwall, England, that is next to a road sign pointing motorists toward the Penmount crematorium, according to the local news outlet Cornwall Live.
One woman whose mother-in-law was cremated at the crematorium last year told the outlet, “Although I can see the funny side [of the advertisement], it is tasteless, and I’m sure some grieving family members won’t like to see it when visiting Penmount for the funeral and cremation of a loved one.”
In a statement to Business Insider, a representative of the Chicago-headquartered McDonald’s chain said the company was not aware that the McCrispy bus stop ad in question was so close to a crematorium road sign.
“In light of the concerns raised by Cornwall Live, we have asked for our advertisement to be removed,” the rep’s statement added.
Some online users found the ad’s placement to be darkly comical. One wrote on Facebook saying: “My parents are in this crematorium. My old man had a brilliant sense of humour, so I’m sure he would have chuckled at this!”
Someone else wrote, “Well it got them plenty of more notice didn’t it! Bad placement without thinking humm I don’t think so! I only recently lost 2 loved ones & to be honest if I’d seen that sign near the crematorium I would have smiled. I don’t find it offensive at all.”
Meanwhile, another user said: “Thank God [it] wasn’t advertising Burger King and being ‘flame grilled.’
It wasn’t immediately clear how long the sign had been up and when it would be removed.
This isn’t the first time that McDonald’s has been subjected to backlash over an ad.
In 2017, McDonald’s apologized after an ad showed a boy asking his mother about his dead father.
As the mother in the ad described to the child what his father was like, the boy appeared visibly sad over the apparent lack of similarities between him and his dad. However, the day is saved when the mother and son stopped at a McDonald’s restaurant where he orders a Filet-O-Fish sandwich and she says: “That was your dad’s favourite, too.”
Psychotherapists and parents condemned the ad, arguing that it “exploited child bereavement”.
In response, McDonald’s pulled the advertisement and said in a statement: “It was never our intention to cause any upset. We are particularly sorry that the advert may have disappointed those people who are most important to us: our customers.”
