Thursday, March 31, 2005

McDonald Germany's New Asian Themed Ads



Reader Jenny G. emails:

"Today, I came across a new McDonald's ad running in Germany. Apparently, they have come up with an asian-themed menu for Asia Weeks there in Germany. My problem is that they have managed to make a shape on the top of the sandwich buns that looks a bit like the kanji for 'Strength', but not quite. So I was hoping you could help me out.

You can watch the TV spot on the http://www.mcdonalds.de/ web site. Just wait for their Flash page to load and you will see a section called Hin & Ham Wochen, with green bamboo. Click that, and in the bottom right corner of the pop up window, click on "Funk & TV." which will bring up the commercial. Anything you might figure out will help."


(Screenshots: 1, 2, 3, 4)

The character shown in the McDonald's ad in fact does not exist in the Kanji listing. It is indeed an incorrectly written (strength, power, capability, influence) with an extra dot.

Similar characters are:

= knife; old coin; measure
= tricky, sly, crafty, cunning
= strength, power, capability, influence
= edged tool, cutlery, knife edge
= manage, do, handle; deal with
= spoon, ladle; knife, dirk
= seven