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Spanish McDonald's ad prompts talk of a boycott; Bergen town's mayor calls billboard 'divisive'
STAR LEDGER ^ | Saturday, July 08, 2006 | ANA M. ALAYA Star-Ledger Staff

Posted on 07/08/2006 3:02:49 AM PDT by Liz

The mayor of a small Bergen County, New Jersey town is calling for a McDonald's boycott if the fast-food chain does not take down a Spanish-language billboard.... Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan said the advertisement is "offensive" and "divisive"......"The true things that bind us together as neighbors and community is our belief in the American flag and our common language," Lonegan said. "And when McDonald's sends a different message, that we're going to be different now, that causes resentment."

Representatives for McDonald's and CBS Outdoor in New York, the company that owns the billboard on River Road in Bogota, defended the advertisement....said Jodi Senese, executive vice president for marketing for CBS Outdoor.

Jennifer Nagy, a marketing manager of McDonald's NY Metro Region, stood by the advertisement.

Lonegan was dismissive of the statement yesterday. "I think that their boilerplate press release is totally meaningless," Lonegan said. "It shows their utter disregard for this community."

Martin Perez, president of the Latino Leadership Alliance of New Jersey, an umbrella group of 250 Hispanic organizations, said there is an "anti-Latino" sentiment behind the opposition to the advertisement.

Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said McDonald's has a first amendment right to advertise in Spanish.

(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: aclu; aliens; bergencounty; billboard; bogota; borders; boycottboycotts; cause4losers; conservative; englishonly; freemarket; illegalaliens; illegalimmigrant; illegals; immigrantlist; immigration; language; lonegan; mcdonalds; mickydssucks; spanish; stevelonegan; wasteoftime
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To: Porterville

I don't think I have ever met a Communist who was"well intentioned"!They always had a hidden agenda.


161 posted on 07/08/2006 12:19:53 PM PDT by Riverman94610
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To: TommyDale
I already do! Well, all except the fries, except the fries... LOL

...and people who find their advertising offensive have the right to boycott them.

162 posted on 07/08/2006 12:20:35 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy ("What time is it? You mean now?")
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To: TommyDale

Yep.


163 posted on 07/08/2006 12:21:11 PM PDT by pollyannaish
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To: Porterville

My ancestors were Irish and Native American. Neither spoke very good English, actually. But they learned to speak the language, and didn't have their hands out for government assistance, or demand that we adopt their cultures, or demand to fly their flag. They blended into America as Americans. No hyphens, just Americans. The sooner people stop referring to their hyphenated ancestry, the sooner they become a part of this great country.


164 posted on 07/08/2006 12:22:25 PM PDT by TommyDale (Stop the Nifongery!)
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To: Liz

McD's has been advertising in the dominant language of the neighborhood for a long long time. Chinese bilboards in Chinatowns, Spanish in Mexican neighborhoods, Italian in Little Italies. If somebody's money is green McD wants it and is willing to speak their language to get it.


165 posted on 07/08/2006 12:23:42 PM PDT by discostu (you must be joking son, where did you get those shoes)
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To: Liz

Maybe it's just me but I can't get worked up about a restaurant with a sign in Spanish or any other language. Just doesn't bother me.


166 posted on 07/08/2006 12:24:26 PM PDT by PJ-Comix (Join the DUmmie FUnnies PING List for the FUNNIEST Blog on the Web)
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To: Exton1
A sovereign country is designated by LANGUAGE, BORDERS, AND COUTURE.




;^)
167 posted on 07/08/2006 12:26:01 PM PDT by AnnaZ (I think so, Brain, but if we give peas a chance, won't the lima beans feel left out?)
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To: Liz

Why doesnt the populist and pious Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan go after the Catholic Diocese leaders in his area that perform religious services in Spanish, and provides social services in Spanish? Why doesn't the mighty patriotic Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan go after the shops that carry the Spanish language newspapers that are for sale in his town? And why doesn't the righteous and amicable Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan go after the Spanish language radio stations that broadcast over the airwaves in his town? Why doesn't the small business orientated Bogota Savings Bank go after the Bogota Savings Bank which has Spanish speaking staff on hand almost every minute the bank is open, and allows customers to perform all transactions in Spanish?

Lonegan has just marginalized if not destroyed his political career over a billboard.

While CBS Outdoor and McDonald's are large corporations, the vast plurality of local small companies make their bread and butter sales to a populace that is Spanish speaking to a greater degree than in the past.


168 posted on 07/08/2006 12:27:49 PM PDT by JerseyHighlander
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To: Porterville
Heavens forbid that a business in America realizes that 1.3 billion people in the world speak Chinese, 1 .1 speak some form of Hindi, 1.5 billion + English speakers, and 1.5 billion Spanish speakers...

Man you have gone off the deep end... the one big happy world government end.. this is America buddy,not China or South America, unless you don't comprehend the concept of borders, I have pictures of my kinfolk that died in wars to help protect America's borders. Heaven forbid those "open border nutsos" from allowing a invasion (does any of your reading include the constitution on preventing invasion, not to mention your state constitutions on the same subject) of 1.3 billion Chinese, 1.1 Indians, and the rest of the 1.5 billion spanish primary speakers that are not already here. BTW... you left out Muslims for some reason ? We should embrace their culture too ... right ?

Quran 5:51, Dawood p393, line 17 "Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number." According to the Quran this is how one should capture, torture and kill unbelievers (infidels) which includes Christians, Jews and Hindus: Quran 47:4, Dawood p124, line 4 "When you meet the unbelievers in the Jihad strike off their heads and, when you have laid them low, bind your captives firmly. Then grant them their freedom or take ransom from them, until War shall lay down her armour." Quran (69:30-37), Daewood p61, line 14 "Lay hold of him and bind him. Burn him in the fire of Hell, then fasten him with a chain seventy cubits long." Quran (8:12), Daewood p315, line 4 "I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, maim them in every limb." Quran (5:33-34), Daewood p 391, line 6 "Those that make war upon Allah and His apostle and spread disorders in the land shall be put to death or crucified, or have their hands and feet and alternate sides cut off, or be banished from the country. " Quran (22:19-22), Daewood p403, line 11 "Garments of fire have been prepared for the unbelievers. scalding water shall be poured down their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies."

Name another country that allows half as many legal immigrates as the US does... heck name a country that allows one third as many as the US does? Please enlighten us, since "we don't read books on history"...

BTW.. your weird strawman arguement neglects to mention I (or anyone else) have no problems with those business's advertising whatever they want on/in those other countries.

I will leave you with a few quotes from Ronald Reagan. You can call him a commie too I guess.

"There was the security of our borders to think about, and the questions of our economy's ability to absorb an endless flow of refugees: If Communism prevailed in Latin America, it would end any hope of achieving the social and economic progress needed to bring prosperity to the region; and this would accellerate the flow of illegal immigrants who, propelled by poverty, were already overwhelming welfare agencies and schools in some parts of our nation." An American Life p. 473. ------Ronald Reagan

"[H]e was not the accused standing in a dock and I was not a prosecutor, and that I had no right to bring up domestic matters of the Soviet Union. In fact, he said, a proposal then current in Washington D.C. to buld a fence along the Mexican border was as bad as anything the Soviets had ever done.
I replied that the fence was meant to stop illegal immigration by people who wanted to join our society because it offered democratic and economic opportunities--that was hardly the same thing as building the Berlin Wall, which imprisoned people in a social system they didn't want to be part of." An American Life ------Ronald Reagan

That commie Reagan... how dare he defend our borders.

169 posted on 07/08/2006 12:29:27 PM PDT by LowOiL ("I am neither . I am a Christocrat" -Benjamin Rush)
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To: Liz

Seeing sign in two languages can help you learn the new one. This is only true if you are literate in one of the languages though. The new ATM's here in So Cal have several languages if it needed by the community I'll try using different languages to see if I can understand. Well if they use the same letter as english. No Korean Chinese yet.


170 posted on 07/08/2006 12:29:49 PM PDT by ThomasThomas (Red is good)
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To: Liz

Almost 100% of the children of monolingual Spanish speaking parents in Bogota, those kids who love Happy Meals as much as any other kid, they will almost all speak English as their first and preferred language for public and at home.

In 20 years many of those kids today will have their own kids, and many of them will stop feeding their kids McDonald's crap food, just like scores of 2nd generation American parents in this country.

Lonegan has made sure that there will be a continued hostility toward the old neighborhood people still in Bogota well after these kids are past eating McDonalds food themselves.


171 posted on 07/08/2006 12:34:43 PM PDT by JerseyHighlander
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To: Porterville

"You know John, I think I will report you to the mod; because I like you so much."

You do what you gotta do. But know that it would please many of us if you'd do it in English.


172 posted on 07/08/2006 12:36:52 PM PDT by John Robertson (Even if we disagree now, we may agree later. Or vice versa.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

>>>Why shouldn't McDonald's advertise to whomever they want to? It's a free country. There are no tax dollars going towards those ads.

You're right. That's why I believe the correct approach is to place ICE in each McDonalds store where non-English ads have reach.

It's a free country. This is called profiling and profiling is good: it's economical.


173 posted on 07/08/2006 12:37:01 PM PDT by Hop A Long Cassidy
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To: Hop A Long Cassidy
place ICE in each McDonalds store where non-English ads have reach.

They won't have time to catch clients, they'll be too busy rounding up the workers, LOL!

174 posted on 07/08/2006 12:38:48 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Peace begins in the womb.)
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To: PJ-Comix
A few years ago I was in a particular neighborhood in Chicago, dining with my ex-father-in-law at his favorite Chicago dog / polish dive, and looked across the street at a business. It had a sign that said 'Se habla Espanol', but all other words on their storefront glass were in Polish! Bilingual, indeed, just that English wasn't one of them! LOL

I had occasion to attend numerous AA meetings in that neighborhood. I've always like meetings in a language I don't speak (Polish in this case). I could still tell what was going on for the most part, tho...

175 posted on 07/08/2006 12:41:06 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy ("What time is it? You mean now?")
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To: Liz
Speaking of the protests, did you notice the signs stating that "republicans hate hispanics"?

Keep your eye on Florida in 08.

176 posted on 07/08/2006 12:43:30 PM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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To: AnnaZ

LOL, good one, AnnaZ! ;>)


177 posted on 07/08/2006 12:44:03 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy ("What time is it? You mean now?")
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

"So those McDonald's commercials that featured Michael Jordan contributed to balkanization?"

Michael Jordan is an American citizen (your racism may be showing, by the way).

"A commerical featuring Hispanics means that McDonald's support illegal immigration?"

Because illegal immigration (thank you for using that term, by the way; it suggests that you realize the problem is real) is such a flashpoint issue right now, any language-other-than-English communication in the country tends to be seen in the context of our illegal immigration invasion.

How about this one? How about, McDonald's is simply pandering, because much of their workforce is drawn from the illegal alien invasion horde?


178 posted on 07/08/2006 12:46:29 PM PDT by John Robertson (Even if we disagree now, we may agree later. Or vice versa.)
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To: Ben Ficklin
Speaking of the protests, did you notice the signs stating that "republicans hate hispanics"?

Got a link please?

179 posted on 07/08/2006 12:47:16 PM PDT by LowOiL ("I am neither . I am a Christocrat" -Benjamin Rush)
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

I personally don't care how they advertise, and I don't care if those who don't like their ads, in whatever language, decide to boycott their products. Each is acting within his/her/its rights.


180 posted on 07/08/2006 12:51:30 PM PDT by NCLaw441
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