Persuasion Notebook offers quick hits on the business of persuasion from The Globe and Mail's marketing and advertising reporter, Susan Krashinsky. Read more on The Globe's marketing page and follow Susan on Twitter @Susinsky.
There is no worse stereotype of the boorish American abroad than the tourist who travels to new lands and insists on eating only at McDonald's.
The fast food giant's newest ad suggests that President Obama might be one of them.
This new spot from TBWA Yehoshua in Tel Aviv has to be seen to be believed. It features secret service men pulling young minimum-wage McDonald's employees from their homes, away from dates and even off a nightclub floor late at night to make an emergency "Big America" burger for the super-sizer-in-chief.
The Barack Obama imitator's bite-and-smile also includes the line, "God bless Israel – for the Big America."
Truly bizarre.
(Hat tip to Fast Company for pointing this one out, and for finding the 2008 version of the ad with a George W. Bush impersonator.)