Something I noticed is that there is multiple beth malone commercials and there is multiple commercials with the same guy in the office. Its making me think that the girl in the mama commercial might be the same girl in the airplane one.
This was my theory as well. The commercial being set on an airplane could also tie in with the Disney sweepstakes thing (her flying to Disney).
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I'm not sure if this helps at all, but I found this news archive from the VTNA.
I looked through the August & September 2004 broadcasts. It includes some stuff about commercials, but I couldn't find anything about McDonald's. I know it doesn't show the specific stations, but maybe there's something useful that I can't find? I'm just throwing ideas, I guess. There's not an official archive from NBC or anything that dates back to 2004, as far as I know. Let me know if this is useless and I'll delete it so it doesn't clog the thread.
Something I noticed is that there is multiple beth malone commercials and there is multiple commercials with the same guy in the office. Its making me think that the girl in the mama commercial might be the same girl in the airplane one.
This was my theory as well. The commercial being set on an airplane could also tie in with the Disney sweepstakes thing (her flying to Disney).
I put the url mentioned in the commercial in the wayback machine and all I really found McDonalds related was this image.
Theres a mcdonalds page on the site but the image is the only thing that loads with a message "Sorry, a system error has occurred. Please try back later."
A pretty good amount of people were mentioning that the ad had been changed to something less offensive with a different plot than the original "you better don't" version. There are no links to any videos of this ad on the message board, but it seems like there might be another (hopefully accessible) version of the ad still somewhere online. One post even has a description of the video which may be handy. My theory is that if we haven't found either version of the ad yet (seeing as the edited version actually exists,) this wasn't just a coincidental losing of media and McDonald's has purposefully tried to wipe all existence of this ad from online so people hopefully forget. (Unless that has already been addressed oops) Hopefully this information can be of some use! I've been so obsessed with this forum for days now, the entire concept is so intriguing. Would love to see this found.
A pretty good amount of people were mentioning that the ad had been changed to something less offensive with a different plot than the original "you better don't" version. There are no links to any videos of this ad on the message board, but it seems like there might be another (hopefully accessible) version of the ad still somewhere online. One post even has a description of the video which may be handy. My theory is that if we haven't found either version of the ad yet (seeing as the edited version actually exists,) this wasn't just a coincidental losing of media and McDonald's has purposefully tried to wipe all existence of this ad from online so people hopefully forget. (Unless that has already been addressed oops) Hopefully this information can be of some use! I've been so obsessed with this forum for days now, the entire concept is so intriguing. Would love to see this found.
If the other mama Disney commercial is related to this one then it makes a lot of sense that both got new versions. There was a post by somebody who was upset at the mama one as well so there was probably a lot of people who complained about both of them.
My theory is that if we haven't found either version of the ad yet (seeing as the edited version actually exists,) this wasn't just a coincidental losing of media and McDonald's has purposefully tried to wipe all existence of this ad from online so people hopefully forget. (Unless that has already been addressed oops) Hopefully this information can be of some use! I've been so obsessed with this forum for days now, the entire concept is so intriguing. Would love to see this found.
See, I think that this might have been true in the year (and maybe year after) the ad came out, but still tracking down info on it to purge it 20 years later, when almost everybody has forgotten it anyway? I don't think that's nearly as likely. My theory for why we haven't found either is that the original version aired only a select number of times (probably in the single digits or very very low double digits) before getting pulled. When the edited version came out, it might have also gotten complaints for one reason or another, or maybe McDonald's just chose to scrap the ad altogether and focus on airing the other ads in the campaign.
And why it hasn't surfaced online? It's a very rare ad only seen by a few people that lived and died a year before YouTube was created, it's not out of the question that no recordings would surface online.
My theory is that if we haven't found either version of the ad yet (seeing as the edited version actually exists,) this wasn't just a coincidental losing of media and McDonald's has purposefully tried to wipe all existence of this ad from online so people hopefully forget. (Unless that has already been addressed oops) Hopefully this information can be of some use! I've been so obsessed with this forum for days now, the entire concept is so intriguing. Would love to see this found.
See, I think that this might have been true in the year (and maybe year after) the ad came out, but still tracking down info on it to purge it 20 years later, when almost everybody has forgotten it anyway? I don't think that's nearly as likely. My theory for why we haven't found either is that the original version aired only a select number of times (probably in the single digits or very very low double digits) before getting pulled. When the edited version came out, it might have also gotten complaints for one reason or another, or maybe McDonald's just chose to scrap the ad altogether and focus on airing the other ads in the campaign.
And why it hasn't surfaced online? It's a very rare ad only seen by a few people that lived and died a year before YouTube was created, it's not out of the question that no recordings would surface online.
I did some more thinking regarding the edited version. Assuming that Mama and the Airplane commercials are both disney related, it would make sense to why they would redo both of them as they are the only 2 disney ones when all the other ones are just advertising chicken selects. Maybe we could use the dates the mama one aired along with the updated mama version to help us find the airplane one, the edited versions of both most likely aired the same day.
See, I think that this might have been true in the year (and maybe year after) the ad came out, but still tracking down info on it to purge it 20 years later, when almost everybody has forgotten it anyway? I don't think that's nearly as likely. My theory for why we haven't found either is that the original version aired only a select number of times (probably in the single digits or very very low double digits) before getting pulled. When the edited version came out, it might have also gotten complaints for one reason or another, or maybe McDonald's just chose to scrap the ad altogether and focus on airing the other ads in the campaign.
And why it hasn't surfaced online? It's a very rare ad only seen by a few people that lived and died a year before YouTube was created, it's not out of the question that no recordings would surface online.
I did some more thinking regarding the edited version. Assuming that Mama and the Airplane commercials are both disney related, it would make sense to why they would redo both of them as they are the only 2 disney ones when all the other ones are just advertising chicken selects. Maybe we could use the dates the mama one aired along with the updated mama version to help us find the airplane one, the edited versions of both most likely aired the same day.
This actually makes a lot of sense! If these ads indeed were a collaboration with Disney, it also could provide a secondary explanation as to why it was pulled. I did some research and around the time these ads were running, Disney's Happy Meal toys were Disney themed. Here's the website the screenshot was taken from: kidsmeal.fandom.com/wiki/McDonald%27s_Happy_Meal_(USA)/List_of_toys#2004
I did some more thinking regarding the edited version. Assuming that Mama and the Airplane commercials are both disney related, it would make sense to why they would redo both of them as they are the only 2 disney ones when all the other ones are just advertising chicken selects. Maybe we could use the dates the mama one aired along with the updated mama version to help us find the airplane one, the edited versions of both most likely aired the same day.
This actually makes a lot of sense! If these ads indeed were a collaboration with Disney, it also could provide a secondary explanation as to why it was pulled. I did some research and around the time these ads were running, Disney's Happy Meal toys were Disney themed. Here's the website the screenshot was taken from: kidsmeal.fandom.com/wiki/McDonald%27s_Happy_Meal_(USA)/List_of_toys#2004
We don't even need to go that far. The "Mama" ad people are talking about is a Disney/Chicken Selects tie-in.
My theory for why we haven't found either is that the original version aired only a select number of times (probably in the single digits or very very low double digits) before getting pulled
I think people overestimate the number of commercial breaks available online. Consider how many commercials air in a day of TV, across however many active channels in 2004. The amount of recorded TV which finds its way to the internet makes it even smaller.
Our sample size for the other ads is still fairly small so I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it was pulled off air just yet.
This actually makes a lot of sense! If these ads indeed were a collaboration with Disney, it also could provide a secondary explanation as to why it was pulled. I did some research and around the time these ads were running, Disney's Happy Meal toys were Disney themed. Here's the website the screenshot was taken from: kidsmeal.fandom.com/wiki/McDonald%27s_Happy_Meal_(USA)/List_of_toys#2004
We don't even need to go that far. The "Mama" ad people are talking about is a Disney/Chicken Selects tie-in.
I think people overestimate the number of commercial breaks available online. Consider how many commercials air in a day of TV, across however many active channels in 2004. The amount of recorded TV which finds its way to the internet makes it even smaller.
Our sample size for the other ads is still fairly small so I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it was pulled off air just yet.
I'm wondering if maybe we need to broaden the search? Maybe if we don't focus on the McDonald's aspect it will pop up? I'm thinking if McDonald's wanted to wipe this ad from the internet, they'd probably target things that specifically relate to McDonald's. The only issue is that it's such a niche commercial that it might take forever to find. (Also editing to add that I've been searching if the actress was listed anywhere but no luck so far.)
Last Edit: Dec 8, 2023 19:34:03 GMT by greasybingo
I think people overestimate the number of commercial breaks available online. Consider how many commercials air in a day of TV, across however many active channels in 2004. The amount of recorded TV which finds its way to the internet makes it even smaller.
Our sample size for the other ads is still fairly small so I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it was pulled off air just yet.
I'm wondering if maybe we need to broaden the search? Maybe if we don't focus on the McDonald's aspect it will pop up? I'm thinking if McDonald's wanted to wipe this ad from the internet, they'd probably target things that specifically relate to McDonald's. The only issue is that it's such a niche commercial that it might take forever to find. (Also editing to add that I've been searching if the actress was listed anywhere but no luck so far.)
People need to stop assuming it was "wiped from the internet". They're not going after a commercial from nearly two decades ago. I guess it's possible there was an individual upload at some point that no longer exists, but to assume they've targeted commercial breaks that happen to contain it is pretty ridiculous imo
The best search method has never been to focus on the McDonald's aspect anyway, it's to watch commercial breaks from the time period in general.
