xoxoxoBruce • Nov 15, 2010 10:33 am
With its distinctive colour scheme and elegant masts, the boat resting on the scenic sandflats of the west Cumbrian coast made a beautiful opening shot for a television advert. But the promotion was made for the fast food giant McDonald's, and the owners of the Badger, a 34ft junk-rigged sailing dory moored near their home, were less than happy at their boat being used to promote a restaurant they "have never set foot inside and are not likely to".
Now, in a remarkable victory, the retired couple from Cumbria have won their fight to have the advert removed from TV screens and re-edited – minus the boat – at the company's expense.
"Remarkable victory" is rather strong, since they asked McDonald's to not use their boat, and McDonald's complied telling the ad company to reedit the film and will go back on the air in December.
"It is our efforts and time and hard work that have made her look as good as she does and we didn't want all that to be used to advertise their product; it didn't seem fair."
Much to my amazement, I find myself siding with McDonald's. It's a boat, it's part of the scenery. If they shot film at the mall and my car was in the parking lot, would I have the right to bitch? I don't think so, if it's not on my private property. As much as I dislike McDonald's, I have to commend them for quietly pulling the ad, when I think the Parsons don't have a legal leg to stand on. Sure, public relations is paramount, but McDonalds could have jerked them around with lawyers sending polite letters back and forth for weeks.
This is the deleted shot which appears at about 15 seconds.
This is "the "weather advert" – an award-winning short film shot in Derbyshire and Cumbria that claims to show that the fast food chain uses produce from British farms."
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