NOT Lovin' It: Japanese add Sleaze to fast food

It appears McDonald's Japan has retired age-old Ronald McDonald and hired McHotties for its new ad campaign. Promoting its Tomato McGrande, McDonald's Japan has enlisted two far younger versions of Ronald McDonald and dressed them in stylish, new Ronald McDuds. It's unclear whether the campaign will make its way to the States mainly because The Ronald McDonald House would then have to be referred to as The Hottie McDonald's House. Classic Japan, as Donald Richie once said, 'the most prurient culture in the world."

"In the Japanese TV commercial," notes Britain's Guardian newspaper, "the foxy female version, with shoulder-length straight auburn hair in place of Ronald's frizzy mop, smolders at the camera in a flowing yellow dress, and later a red and white striped bikini with thigh-length leggings and red high heels."

"The customers are calling her the female Ronald but that was not our intention," said campaign creator, Hidekazu Sato, known by his nickname Kazoo, through a translator. "We devised the costume and took the red and white stripes and the yellow, which were recognized and converted them into a stylish dress. ..

Illinois-based McDonald's, founded in 1955 by Ray Kroc, reportedly has had a grilling relationship with Japan since its debut in 1971.

According to the Times, when faced with accusations that hamburgers were inimical to the country's diet, Den Fujita, the first McDonald's Japan president, declared: "The reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for 2,000 years. If we eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white and our hair blond."