By Howard Koplowitz
A McDonald’s ad on the A train that suggests riders drink the fast food chain’s iced coffee or risk “falling asleep and ending up in Far Rockaway” has City Councilman James Sanders (D-Laurelton) steamed.
The ad shows a hand wrapped around a McDonald’s iced coffee making a toast with the words “To not falling asleep and ending up in Far Rockaway” with smaller text in parentheses saying “unless, of course, you live there.”
“I can assure the marketing boys over at McDonald’s that most people don’t wind up in the Rockaways by accident,” Sanders said in a statement that also said he was banning Ronald McDonald from the peninsula unless he decides to ride the A train and stop off in Far Rockaway. “They come for the beauty, serenity and entertainment that our peninsula offers, especially in the hot summer months when our beaches are overrun with visitors from Manhattan who flock to our shores.”
A McDonald’s marketing manager said the ad was being pulled immediately and apologized “to anyone who was offended by our subway advertisement.
“Our intention was to add humor to the situation of falling asleep on the subway, missing a local stop and waking up at the end of the line,” said Jennifer Nagy, marketing manager for McDonald’s New York Metro Region. “The goal was to position McDonald’s iced coffee as a solution to instead stay awake. We never meant to disparage Far Rockaway or those who live there.”
Sanders said he was going to use “the powers vested in me by the people of my district” to ban Ronald McDonald from Rockaway.
“He can no longer walk our seven miles of boardwalk or sunbathe on our 14 miles of beachfront, and I better not catch him frolicking on a summer day in our cool, relaxing water,” the councilman said.
Sanders said the ban can be lifted if Ronald “comes out to visit by train and expresses his love for our community.
“As a loyal patron of mass transit, I ride the trains and buses daily and I encourage Ronald McDonald to ride with me as we cross one of nature’s wonders, Jamaica Bay, and go through the Gateway National Recreation Area to meet some of the best people east of the Rockies,” the councilman said.
But a McDonald’s spokeswoman said Ronald McDonald would not take up Sanders’s offer.
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
