Picture this. A man, his wife, and their daughter sitting quietly at a dinner table, enjoying a McDonald’s meal together. The daughter asks the mother if she can try a fry, and the mother gives her one, and the little girl loves it. To me, this ad was the most innocent and inoffensive piece of media I have seen in years. To me, there’s nothing political here. Just a family enjoying a meal together. But leave it to the American Social Media Scene on X to find something sinister here. After all, the prevailing view on X is that families equal fascists, or something ridiculous like that.
See the ad without commentary here.
https://youtu.be/XnAdYlKzLMA?si=ZBwZPHUPODWQxGVA
In the Bizarro World we live in, the ad was attacked as being anti-trans, and white supremacist (despite the family being Japanese). Some complaints even leveled accusations at McDonald’s of promoting pedophilia, as if a traditional nuclear family is a greater danger to a child than drag shows with drag queens dancing around almost naked. It’s a strange argument to make, but one need only do a cursory examination of X this week to see a wide array of attacks against this ad from the bizarre to the completely unhinged.
To be fair there are also a lot of people defending the ad, as well as people mocking people for defending the ad. But to me, that there’s even a conflict over something so innocuous is an indication of just how far we in the West have fallen. No doubt the traditional family is under attack. We’ve seen it bashed by our institutions of education. We’ve seen the media prop up activist groups who list getting rid of the traditional family as one of their objectives (as did BLM and Antifa). Movies these days can’t portray a stable, happy family. Fathers in particular are portrayed as being abusive, negligent, fat, stupid drunkards. No doubt the message from our institutions has been, “You will be happier if you eschew traditional families.”
But are people happier? The deepest sorrow in my life is that my wife and I have been unable to have children, through no fault of our own. I see an ad like this and it reminds me of what is missing. But not in a bad way. In twenty years we have had eight miscarriages, and no successful pregnancies. But we are still happy when our friends and family announce new additions to their family. It doesn’t hurt my wife and I to see an ad like this, rather it gives us a moment of joy to see what might have been. And may yet be, as we still cling to hope.
But when I look at those who have chosen to embrace the alternative, the rejection of marriage, in particular, I do not see happiness. Instead, YouTube and Til Tok and X are cluttered with angry, lonely feminists and MIGTOW (Men going their own way) flinging ridiculous accusations at each other and blaming each other for their own misery. Women don’t want to marry, because all men are misogynistic patriarchs, while men don’t want to marry because women will just divorce them anyway and take the kids and half his stuff. Both groups are equally miserable.
And let’s be honest, the people who participate in LGBTQ activism online also do not project happiness. Beneath the veneer of the smiles is a deep misery that compels their activism because something is missing, and they just can’t put their finger on it. And so they point their fingers at phantom ists and phobes, because it’s easier to blame external sources for misery than to look within.
Celebrities get married and then divorced on a dime. Do they look happier after the fact? Or do those celebrities who reject the family fall into misery’s net as well? We see many celebrities turn to promiscuity and drugs to mask their loneliness, but let’s not kid ourselves… most celebrities we see who reject family life are miserable people. Meanwhile, the few celebrities who embrace it, like Chris Pratt, are happy. (You will notice that X, YouTube, and TikTok also hate Chris Pratt. Could it be envy for what he has and they do not? I wonder…)
Being without children has been a source of sorrow for my wife and I. But at least we have each other to console one another. Having this beautiful Texas gal to wrap my arms around has given me a great deal of comfort. She is there for me through life’s toughest moments, and I am for her. And our marriage hasn’t been easy. It is a challenge, but the key to it is to want it bad enough that you care about your partner’s happiness. There is an old saying, happy wife, happy life. The reverse is true as well. When both partners center themselves on each other, happiness ensues.
We know many people who have successful marriages. They’re the type of people the media never tells you about, but they exist. The husband makes it a point to cherish his wife and help with the kids. The wife makes it a point to cherish her husband and help with the kids. At the end of the week, everyone is tired, but they’re happy. And in that happiness, they have quiet moments, moments like the McDonald’s ad, where two tired parents share a quiet meal with the greatest treasure in their life.
Perhaps the real reason that some Westerners hate this commercial is because it reminds them of what they gave up in pursuit of their activism.
One Response
Twenty years and eight miscarriages is a heartache and yet you are so kind and generous with goodwill for others happiness. Great article. We need to look for and acknowledge the good wherever it can be found. There is a lot of good in the world.