Thursday, May 27, 2010

McDonaldland Poster!

This poster brings back fond memories and is one of my prized possessions in my collection. I always have had a fondness for McDonald's as an icon, but less so of their food.

People are amazed when I say this, but when I was a kid, I hated McDonald's. Mind you, McDonald's did not have the menu it has now. It had hamburgers, cheeseburgers and fish sandwiches and THAT'S IT! I didn't like McDonald's hamburgers. I much preferred my mother's hamburgers. And fish sandwich? Ewww!

I can eat all of that stuff now, but back then in the early 70s...bleagh!!!

I did like McDonald's french fries, and their shakes on occasion, but that's it. My favorite soft drink as a kid was root beer, and McDonald's didn't even serve it! I couldn't stand Coke as a kid. Yes, I was a weird kid...

My preference at the time was Kentucky Fried Chicken. The ironic thing is now I rarely go to KFC, because I usually feel ill after I eat there. I think they changed how they prepared the food after the Colonel passed away. It seems to be better then, or perhaps my stomach could take it better then...

Anyway, my distaste for McDonald's food did not prevent me from collecting various McDonald's merchandise over the years, some of it now highly collectible. I was just collecting it because I liked it.

Like I have a booklet about the McDonald's soft drink lids telling you that you could use them as molds because they use to have the various McDonald's characters embossed in the lids.

About the poster, I liked it because it was created before they decided to "cute up" the McDonald's characters. Captain Crook, Hamburglar, Grimace and the Goblins used to be scary-looking dudes. Later, they made them all sweet and nice and boring. I mean Grimace had multiple arms and pouches to hold the shakes he stole! Creepy!!

I also miss characters like the wastebaskets! Only McDonald's would make the wastebasket a character!

Anyway, it is a nifty looking painting of McDonaldland. I wish I knew who the artist was, however. It came out about 1972...

1 comment:

Bishop said...

Weird modern McD's thingy I've noticed. The Ronald McDonald statues that appear in many stores are different country to country. I was very amused in Thailand to see Ronald performing a 'wai'(like so: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hegemonyrules/285937160/). In the Netherlands, he sits with one foot resting on the other knee. In Thailand, showing the bottom of the foot like this is one of the rudest things you can do.

Strange.