The Aardvark Speaks: Not lovin' it

September 01, 2003

Not lovin' it

I'm not sure whether it's some kind of temporary PR campaign or if the slogan is with us to stay, but employees at Vienna McDonald's are now wearing black T-shirts with the slogan "I'm lovin' it" imprinted on them.

A short aside: In my 11 years of teaching English, I've been telling my students that the progressive form is used to express an unfinished activity. Therefore, I'm not sure if it's actually possible to say "I'm loving something", just as you don't say "I'm knowing something" either, for "love", like "know", doesn't express activity.

Now whatever you think about the food at McDonald's — lovin' or not lovin' it seems to be a matter of taste as well as of ideology (and I only just noticed recently how awful McDonald's fries taste if you don't have ketchup with them) — but having the employees wear these T-shirts seems like an exercise in capitalist cynicism, because the slogan is just ambiguous enough to state that they also love their jobs.

Now talk to anyone who ever worked at a McDonald's in their student days, and I assure you, they weren't lovin' it, they were hatin' it. Ever wondered why their employees seem to be changing on an almost monthly basis? Well, they haven't been called the world leader in the exploitation of young people for no reason, and it seems the employees of the Strasbourg-St Denis branch of McDonald's in Paris, who have been on strike since March this year weren't particularly lovin' their working conditions either.

In related news, Glenn Reynolds suggests reducing the number of heat deaths in Paris by opening more branches of McDonald's, and while I'd like to enjoy a good laugh about this, I fear that he's actually being serious. (In case his argument seems to make sense to you, let me assure you that no French retiree or low-income worker would drink a small bottle of water at McD's for €1.50 when they can get a large one at the supermarket for €0.19).

Posted by Horst on September 1, 2003 12:55 PM to creatures great & small | Tell-a-friend

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Alexander said on September 1, 2003 01:04 PM:

Looks like a permanent slogan, they even have registered imlovinit.com, with BIGMAC1.MCD.COM as primary name server.

nora said on September 1, 2003 02:25 PM:

yikes (goes for food and usage of language).

Horst said on September 1, 2003 02:26 PM:

O my.

And the fact that the slogan is not too grammatical also makes sense because it was apparently invented by a German marketing agency - interesting to see how Denglisch spreads around the world.

A quote: McDonald's Global Chief Marketing Officer, Larry Light, today congratulated the German agency along with all of the agencies participating in this worldwide marketing initiative. [...] "It's a great approach and I'm loving it."

O my.

nora said on September 1, 2003 02:34 PM:

double o my. i'll brush up the old sprachpolizei badge and will let you know when they start changing the grammar here. Rite?

Scott Hanson said on September 1, 2003 04:36 PM:

Funny that in Austria they're using the English phrase, since in Germany the campaign is 'Ich liebe es'.

As for the grammar, it's probably OK for conversation and for advertising, but I wouldn't use it in formal writing.

Horst said on September 1, 2003 08:31 PM:

You hear a lot more Denglisch in Austria than in Germany. I find that in Germany you can speak German and still be cool, whereas in Austria you have to speak Denglisch to be cool. Probably that's why.

Klaus said on September 2, 2003 10:48 AM:

I would rather say that many Germans seem to have a problem with pronouncing any kind of foreign word embedded in German. McD's renamed the BigMac to "BigMäc" in Germany, but not in Austria, apparently fearing that it would be pronounced like a German word ("BigMuck"). They're probably right, considering such horrible examples as "Michelin" tyres ("Mee-xay-leen") and "Colgate" toothpaste ("Col-guh-tay").

For some reason, Austrians seem to have less of a problem pronouncing those words (roughly) like native speakers. Or at least the advertising industry thinks so.

vasili said on September 2, 2003 01:02 PM:

as 'kindergarten' became 'keen-dair-garden' and 'über' became 'oo-bair' in english, this might be some form of revenge.

;-)

WorldWideKlein said on September 2, 2003 04:00 PM:

"I'm out there, Jerry, and I'm loving every minute!" Cosmo Kramer in einer nicht näher auffindbaren "Seinfeld"-Folge. Scheint also doch möglich zu sein - von den philosophischen Folgen abgesehen mal abgesehen.

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