MCDONALD’S MASCOT RONALD McDonald has become a high-profile casualty of the ‘creepy clowns’ craze that is sweeping the globe.
The fast food giant says that it is scaling back American appearances of its world-famous face for fear he could be mistaken for one of the clowns that are currently terrorising Americans, and some British and Dutch people too.
“McDonald’s and franchisees in local markets are mindful of the current climate around clown sightings in communities and as such are being thoughtful with respect to Ronald McDonald’s participation in community events for the time being,” spokeswoman for the company Terri Hickey said in a statement to CNN.
This does not mean that there will be no appearances by Ronald McDonald, but that we are being thoughtful as to Ronald McDonald’s participation in various community events at this time.
Whether or not this will mean a promotion for the Hamburglar is open to speculation.
A series of creepy clown sightings across the US has caused a wave of hysteria, forcing police and schools to scramble to contain spreading jitters.
“Everybody is acting as if this is unprecedented, that it has never happened before,” sociologist Dr Robert Bartholomew, author of The Martians Have Landed: A History of Media-Driven Panics and Hoaxes, told AFP.
But exactly the same thing happened in France in 2014 and it was also fuelled by social media, bogus sightings and video hoaxes. Now it’s happening in America people are paying attention. But it was quite intense and violent in France leading to the arrest or jailing of a dozen teenage ‘Killer Clowns’.
“The clown scare is a classic social panic involving an exaggerated fear about some evil threatening the public,” Bartholomew added.
While the craze does not seem to have spread as far as Ireland just yet, a school in Dublin had to deal with an incident involving terrifying clowns of its own last Thursday.
Fortunately, on that occasion the clowns involved were shooting a promotional Halloween video for “scare house” company The Nightmare Realm.
With AFP
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