McDonald's Drops 'Hammurderer' Character From Advertising
 

OAK BROOK, IL—Bowing to outcry from consumers and parents groups, the McDonald's Corporation announced Monday that it is discontinuing its new advertising mascot, "The Hammurderer," a mischievous, homicidal imp who kills McDonaldland characters and takes their sandwiches.

http://graphics.theonion.com/pics_3808/hammurderer.jpg
Above: The discontinued character.

Developed by Chicago advertising agency DDB Needham, the Hammurderer made his debut two months ago and has since appeared in a series of Saturday-morning television commercials, as well as on Happy Meal bags and activity placemats. All appearances by and references to the violent, ill-tempered prison escapee will be dropped.

"Over the years, McDonald's has successfully introduced a number of new characters whose defining characteristic is a certain measure of comical, criminal intent," said Andrew Perlich, McDonald's vice-president of promotions. "Such shady characters as The Hamburglar, The Goblins, and the bloodthirsty pirate Captain Crook have all fit nicely into the McDonald's advertising universe. We had every reason to believe that the Hammurderer, with his long rap sheet of burger-related crimes and his signature cry of 'Stabble Stabble Stabble,' would take his place in this proud lineage of McDonaldland mischief-makers."

The Hammurderer's Jan. 11 debut ad—in which he seizes and devours the McDonald's Happy Meal Guys, oblivious to their frantic screams—earned poor marks from parents and child-development experts, who feared the spot might send the message to children that killing is acceptable. Several weeks later, more controversy erupted over the promotional coloring book "Shivved In The McRibs," in which the Hammurderer decapitates Mayor McCheese and eats his head. Responding to widespread public outrage, McDonald's executives defended the coloring book as "not nearly as violent or socially irresponsible as it has been made out to be, given that the Mayor's head is, in fact, a giant and conceivably edible cheeseburger."

But the uproar over the latest commercial, in which Birdie The Early Bird is garroted by the Hammurderer and her body tossed in a Dumpster, was vociferous enough to prompt the fast-food giant to pull the plug.

"We are sensitive to the concerns of parents and will immediately begin phasing out this character," Perlich said. "Whether we will remove him from commercials without explanation or write him out of the spots with a bloody police standoff, we have yet to decide. But we're confident the Hammurderer will be off the national radar by April."

Hammurderer toys and promotional items, which include dolls, T-shirts, ski masks, and spiked bats, have been recalled and are expected to become prized collectibles.

This is not the first time a McDonald's character has stirred controversy for its violent nature. In 1982, the company introduced "Shakes McJunkie," an emaciated addict who robbed characters of their possessions, which he then sold to buy McDonald's shakes. He was later reworked as "The Machead," a homeless, wild-eyed Big Mac addict who turned to panhandling and gay prostitution as a means of supporting his severe burger habit.

The Hammurderer is quickly becoming regarded as the worst-received advertising mascot since Kool-Aid's 1989 discontinuation of "The Grapist," a huge purple monster who sodomizes thirsty children.

Source: The Onion

Eh?
 

No Offence Syd but I never heard of the Hammurder guy! Or any other of thes characters! But I'm gld it stopped!

Is my calander wrong, is it April 1st? Is this some kind of joke? "The Grapist" "Hammurderer"! They advertised character like this to young children?!

Heh!
 

Oh, too funny!

*is still laughing*

obviously some people dont know what the onion is

Urg
 

I thought McDonald's was bad enough to ignore animalrights regulations, serve chemical-infused and unhealthy food and employ unhygeinic employees, but I never knew they promoted crime on top of that all.

Hammurderer? Hamburglar? Bloodthirsty pirate? What the heck have McDonald's got against humanity?? We just have Ronald McDonald in England, and occassionally that purple furry thing, and they're fine advertising-wise (other than that the subject of their message is evil). What's next? Molly the McMurdered Moo-cow?

Just to promote McDonald's even more. I advise this rather than the multitude of anti-McDonald's places on the web, which are probably more disturbing than MD itself.
What's wrong with McDonald's?

The Onion is a satirical "news" web site. They make funny stuff up based on real stuff.

EDIT: Another example of the fact that just because something is in print somewhere, particularly on the poor-person's printing press, i.e., the internet, doesn't make it true. It seems like every week someone in the US is completely outraged by something reported in the Onion, completely oblivious to the fact that it's satire and not real news.

Yeah, it's all a big joke. Look at the point counterpoints, they're damned hilarious!

Quite amusing...
 

Yeh...that was quite amusing...even funnier when people took it seriously...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA

I read it a couple days ago. it's a long story but my friend may have convinced our dean to start reading that.

P
 

God, now I'm embarassed. Not so much because I didn't realise that 'The Onion' is a satrical thing, but because I didn't see it in Sydney's post. I though Oddbodd had gone nuts.

Still, I don't think Hamburglar is very good. I found him at www.amiannoying.com

Waffles and various cat toys.
 

That was damn funny! Especially "The Grapist." I'm not saying it's OK to rape kiddies for Kool Aid, but the thought that someone would put that on television is funny to me. But I'm sure that no company would put such characters as those in their commercials.

:lol: :lol:

*laughs*............ *laugh trails off to a few snickers*..... Whew... um, Hammurderer? Now, I really don't think that McDonalds would EVER put blood in their commercials. I mean, I know Hamburglar is really there, but he isn't antagonistic or violent in the least. As I was reading this, I was thinking Man, this has got to come from the Onion. and I was RIGHT! *laughs* Sheesh, that is CRAZY!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

*laughs at everyone who took it seriously*
:lol: :lol: :lol:
I put 2 and 2 together.
Sydney + McDonalds = Joke or Witty Comment
Good joke Syd! :D

That would have been funny enough had not half the forums taken it seriously... I can't believe the gullibility of you people...

While we're at it:

http://www.brknews.com

http://www.thechaser.com.au

I had more, but I lost the addresses when I reformatted my hard drive. These were the only two I could remember... Apart from The Onion, of course... ;)

hmmm..the onion is amusing. I'm surprised so many of you took that seriously...
anyway, I'm tempted to post some links that mock vegetarians/extreme animal rights activists and portray them as hypocritical fundamentalists, but I'm sure that would offend to many people on here...although it's apparently funny to portray those who eat meat as idiotic barbarians..I shall still hold back. :)

hm, after the first paragraph or so i realized that it was some sort of fake article, you gulible gits. hm, that breaking new palce looks intruiging....

Heh, I thought that was pretty funny... The Onion can be quite funny... Too bad they stole my idea about that mascot, though, I was going to sell the idea to Mcdonald's.. *sighs*

And then I could laugh again when people actually thought it was real...

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: thats hilarious ... especially the guys takin it seriously

I knew somethin' was up when I saw that bloody knife.:lol: :lol:

Go right ahead, Dave... :D Unlike you Meat-Eaters, we Vegetarians can take jokes against ourselves... :P

[I'm joking - I thought I'd point that out since certain people on the forums seem to have a spectacular ability to take things seriously...]

Alright already, I think we've already made that obvious enough. Besides, only 2 or 3 ppl took it seriously... of course if you were talking about a completely different event, than I guess I shouldn't of responded. Oh well...

Oh, this is only one in a long series of hilarious misunderstandings... :D

I may be the most gulible person on the planet and even I knew that was fake. Hehe, I like the story about the distrught 6-year old and her picture of her parents. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Har har, Danny. Har. :dodgy: :D

Speaking of gullibility, the interests field of my profile refers to the cult of which I am founder of. It asks to PM me with your credit card details if you're interested in joining. A member who shall remain nameless PM'd me, expressing interest, asking how much it would cost. :lol:

counts 20 lol oddicons on this page... record i think

HOAX!
 

The Onion seems to be a source for HOAXES!!!!!!!!

(Those other characters like the Hamburgler DO exist, I know them, and those are funny!)