If you happened to watch the Superbowl you may have seen the following McDonald’s ad. The will be offering food and randomly ask customers to “pay with lovin'” my way of hugs, phone calls to friends and family telling them “I love you” or even selfies. This is a lot like their “I’m lovin’ it” slogan.

In Seflie City we see different trends in different cities across the globe, such as more smiles in Brazil. I’ve been to Brazil and the people tend to be very happy even if they don’t have much. One of my close friends went to Russia and told me about their culture and how men tend to be a little more reserved, which seems to follow the idea that men also take less selfies and that both men and women smile less. I think that there is an evolution of marketing with the changing technologies and customer people’s behavior.   Phone calls were once only for men discussing business, then women made it more social and eventually people started using telemarketing to sell things. I know I making big leaps in my logic here but I feel like new trends like the selfie are for a while disregarded by the media in terms of marketing, but eventually the force of the trend becomes so strong that one by one they all begin to get more involved and now I am starting to see more selfies on TV and in ads for cell phones and they tend to look at it in a positive light. McDonalds has been suffering from competition (new chains like Shake Shack and 5 Guys) and because of new health trends but this ad will be getting more people to come in to their stores because they are advertising love and showing McDonald’s in a more humanistic light.

In a strange way McDonalds is trying to play into what Foucault’s said, “different cultures have seen [technology] as necessary to cultivate (and discipline) the self” (Losh, 4). People like to think that technology is helpful and can makes them better people and McDonald’s encouraging people to take a step in the right direction by offering food. I think if they were really genuine about it they wouldn’t have needed to make an ad because (I feel like) love isn’t boastful, now that everyone ones due to the Superbowl ad, people will be flocking to McD’s hoping to be a chosen one. It takes a lot of the surprise out it it. Anyway… it’s interesting how they are promoting selfies as well as themselves.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-to-accept-selfies-as-payment-2015-1can