A commercial for a fast-food giant gained praise among social media users in other countries.
McDonald’s Philippines released an advertisement involving queer people on May 29. This also dropped ahead of Pride Month of June.
“You’re my happy place…Love na babalik-balikan,” the caption reads with the hashtag #LoveKoAll.
In the short video, a girl on roller skates went around a McDonald’s Ride-Thru multiple times to order a cheeseburger, one medium fries and one large iced coffee original.
She also seemed to be flirting with the female employee during each trip to the Ride-Thru window.
It was later revealed that both women were in fact, romantic partners.
After these trips, the girl was shown enjoying her meal as she sat in front of the store.
The female employee, whose shift has just ended, approached her, called her and gave her McDonald’s signature ice cream.
They gave each other a meaningful smile and then left the store while holding hands.
The video has since garnered 4.2 million views, 262 reactions and 9,900 comments on the platform.
On Twitter, the video was viewed more than 805,000 times.
Local cheers
Digital content creator Andrea Kyra Mahinay and athlete Kaizen Dela Serna were the stars in this latest advertisement.
Mahinay’s real-life girlfriend DJ Kate Jagdon expressed support for her in a Facebook post.
“I’m so proud of you love Andrea Kyra Mahinay. Even though I’m not the one you’re sharing your ice cream with on screen, at least you’re mine in real life,” Jagdon said.
Miss Universe Philippines 2023 Michelle Dee, who also came out as bisexual in public, reacted to the video on Twitter with a rainbow flag emoji.
🏳️🌈 @McDo_PH https://t.co/hucO3S60dL
— MMD (@michellemdee) May 30, 2023
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Several Filipinos also praised the fast-food brand for the representation of the LGBTQIA community in its latest campaign.
International praises
The video was eventually noticed by Twitter users from other countries.
Twitter user @_allthelilies praised the advertisement’s love story.
“When ads are the one that gives us cute happy sapphic stories,” the Twitter user said.
when ads are the one that gives us cute happy sapphic stories pic.twitter.com/dQDSiuHz8i
— jo (@_allthelilies) May 29, 2023
This tweet has since received 17.8 million views, 105,600 likes, 7,926 quotes and 17,000 quote retweets so far.
Another tweet of the video gained more than 11,000 views on the platform.
It was uploaded by Twitter user @dailysoftgl.
“I cannot get over how cute the new sapphic McDonald’s commercial is,” the user tweeted.
People from other countries also lauded the fast-food giant for this campaign.
“Sapphic representation from McDonald’s wasn’t something I thought I would see today but I love this so much,” a Twitter user said with heart emojis.
“This is the happiest a big corporate commercial has ever made me,” another Twitter user said.
“Crying! They were girlfriends all along,” another person said on Twitter.
The word “Sapphic” is often used to refer to a romantic relationship between two women.
In a statement, McDonald’s Corporate Relations Director Adi Hernandez explained that the company wanted to show that McDonald’s Philippines is gender inclusive.
“Despite its rare representation locally, it was important that this love story is depicted as a regular, everyday occurrence at McDonald’s Philippines. Gender inclusivity is ingrained in our brand experience from our customers to our employees,” Hernandez said.
“No matter who you are, you are welcome and safe to come back here again and again. That’s what we wanted our audience to know,” he added.
