When the "Mac Tonight" ad was out, I actually WORKED in my hometown's McDonald's, and they had a "Mac Tonight Tour" throughout southern New England at one point, where a guy dressed up in the big moon head would just turn up at various McDonald's and dance around waving at people. The music he danced to was provided by a really bored-looking guy with a boom box that played the Mac Tonight song on a continuous loop.
I'd burned the hell out of my arm on the fryolater about a half hour before he showed up (seriously, they sent me to the back room to get over my dizzy spell, then they sprayed a hell of a lot of bactine on me and wrapped my wrist in gauze; it was a 2nd degree burn, I think), and so they gave me "wander around on cleanup duty because that's easy," so I got to see the whole thing. Some people were really psyched, and one of my managers even came out of her office to do some swing dance moves with him at one point.
My favorite reaction was one woman who took three steps into the place and then saw him, and froze, wide-eyed. Mac Tonight saw her and started shuffling her way, pointing at her and nodding and doing this whole lounge-lizard-on-the-prowl sort of thing, and she just stared, as if all her behavioral instincts had completely abandoned her. When Mac got to her, he held his hand out to her to shake, and she very slowly raised her hand, watching it as it rose to meet his as if she was being controlled by an outside force.
I'm not entirely sure what that was all supposed to achieve. But now, nearly 26 years later, I'm suddenly wondering "what was the guy who dressed up like that feeling about that job?"
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Date: 2012-01-28 12:40 am (UTC)From:I'd burned the hell out of my arm on the fryolater about a half hour before he showed up (seriously, they sent me to the back room to get over my dizzy spell, then they sprayed a hell of a lot of bactine on me and wrapped my wrist in gauze; it was a 2nd degree burn, I think), and so they gave me "wander around on cleanup duty because that's easy," so I got to see the whole thing. Some people were really psyched, and one of my managers even came out of her office to do some swing dance moves with him at one point.
My favorite reaction was one woman who took three steps into the place and then saw him, and froze, wide-eyed. Mac Tonight saw her and started shuffling her way, pointing at her and nodding and doing this whole lounge-lizard-on-the-prowl sort of thing, and she just stared, as if all her behavioral instincts had completely abandoned her. When Mac got to her, he held his hand out to her to shake, and she very slowly raised her hand, watching it as it rose to meet his as if she was being controlled by an outside force.
I'm not entirely sure what that was all supposed to achieve. But now, nearly 26 years later, I'm suddenly wondering "what was the guy who dressed up like that feeling about that job?"