McDonald's Rant 4 - Commercial

See here for the other rants.

My wife and I were disgusted by a recent McDonald's TV commercial here in HK. Video link here. The basic rundown of the commercial goes like this:

• Family of 4: Mom, dad, son, and younger daughter.
• Commercial opens with the son playing alone with his train set. His little sister interrupts him by taking the train off the tracks. He shows his dissatisfaction by telling his sister to stop. The mom sticks her head out from the kitchen and tells her son to yield to his sister.
• Son tries to show Mom a drawing he made. Mom is busy feeding her younger daughter and tells her son to go away to play by himself.
• The whole family goes to a park. Both mom and dad focus on their daughter while their son sits alone on the bench sulking. They then look over to their son and realize what they must do.
• They all go to McDonald's where the dad orders a Big Mac meal for his son.
• His son shows surprise and enthusiasm (because he's supposedly only expecting a Happy Meal?)
• His dad implies that he's getting a Big Mac meal because he's grown up and no longer a child.
• The son happily celebrates getting his "grown up" meal, having completely forgotten how his douche-bag parents treated him like dirt just moments ago.

So, here's what I took away from that commercial:

• The parents completely neglected their first-born child with the arrival of a new baby.
• Instead of spending more time with their son, they decided to buy him out with a Big Mac meal.
• So now, the son is suppose to feel ok with that because he got a Big Mac?

McDonald's seems to be claiming their food is more important than parental care. If so, all parents should forget about giving their kids attention, encouragement or hugs. Just buy them all Big Mac meals. If you really want to show your love, super-size them.