Horror in Unlikely Places: Ronald McHorror

Kevin was the head of our Horror In Unlikely Place Department and when he moved on, the feature sort of languished. But I’ve just seen a couple of ads that merit a resurrection for the old saw. Here’s the first one. The second, even more horror-tinged, piece comes in the next few days.

Here’s a pretty weird, horrific ad from India announcing the opening of a new McDonald’s.

You’ve got to figure the horror readings of the image are unintentional (some advertisements use horror to sell, of course, but who would want to use horror involving a child to sell hamburgers? Makes no sense), but they’re there nonetheless. And there are a bunch of them.

The image itself is odd and unappealing. It’s hard to see how this rictus, this porcelainization of a child would make you want to eat fast food. But some folks at Leo Burnett New Delhi seem to think it will.

For our purview, the image evokes a stream of horror associations:


  • It’s reminiscent of Pennywise, the demonic clown from Stephen King’s IT (as pointed out by Consumerist, via Boing Boing).

  • It brings to mind the faces of the victims of The Joker’s deadly laughing gas from the first Batman film.

  • It plays on the horror aspects of pregnancy, that a new thing, a new being, unseen and unknown, is growing inside someone, as touched on in movies like Rosemary’s Baby and The Unborn.

  • Of course it evokes the use of dolls, especially ceramic dolls, as shock-horror items in many horror movies, including Poltergeist.

  • (all of which is to say nothing about the kid’s disappearing torso at the bottom right).

In non-strictly horror readings, it also has some other horrific associations:

  • This ad is for India, remember. Not a lot of white kids being born in India. So, you could read this ad as McDonald’s and its ingredients turning Indian kids, who should be darker-skinned than European-descended kids, white.

  • Look at that mouth and the dead-eye expression. The kid also looks like an inflatable sex doll.

The whole thing is weird and chilling.

And if you think that’s bad, wait until you see the one I’ve got coming later this week.

About this article

You’re reading “Horror in Unlikely Places: Ronald McHorror,” an entry by Sam Costello

Published:
5.18.06 / 12pm
Category:
Uncategorized, Horror In Unlikely Places
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