In what could well be the first example of an expletive deleted actually being deleted from a marketing effort, McDonald's has pulled a snarky ad campaign that literally used the "F"-word. Of
course, the "F"-word in this instance was the word "free," but you wouldn't necessarily have known that if you listened to the original version of the ad created by McDonald's agency Arnold
Worldwide. It intentionally bleeped out the word to create the illusion that the commercial actor might have been saying another word, unless you could read lips, of course. "Our perspective is that
we have to do something that will cut through the clutter," Arnold Creative Director Chris Edwards told
The New York Post. The tactic worked--maybe a little too well. The ad generated plenty
of attention, but also enough complaints that McDonald's decided to shelve the spot and replace it with one where you could actually hear the word "free," a step Edwards thinks may have been
unnecessary. "If you were to substitute the other 'F'-word in there, it doesn't make sense," he said.
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