McDonald’s workers’ requests for dances, fist bumps confusing customers

McDonald’s new campaign inviting customers to “Pay with Love” might be backfiring as unsuspecting customers are confused by clerks asking for a dance or a fist bump.

“You helped me figure out a confusing few minutes I had in McDonald’s yesterday!” Rachel in Tacoma writes into KIRO Radio’s Tom & Curley Show.

Tom & Curley discussed the new promotion on their show. Basically, McDonald’s is selecting random customers to pay for their food orders with acts like calling their mom to tell her how much they love her or sharing a family hug in line in lieu of cash. McDonald’s introduced the campaign in a Super Bowl ad.

Listener Rachel, however, was one of many people who happened upon the experience with no knowledge of the promotion.

I heard the guy ordering next to me, and he looked like he was negotiating with the worker, who was WAY TOO EXCITED, and he kept saying “No, I just want…” and the worker kept cutting him off in his happy voice, but was getting nowhere with the guy.

Finally, I heard the worker say, “Would you just give me a high five?” The customer gave him the limpest, most unenthusiastic high five I have ever seen.

I left thoroughly confused and figured I would never know what was going on. Now I do, and it cracks me up to imagine these scenes playing out across the country.

The whole idea scares Tom & Curley a bit.

“Not that I would head in there very soon,” says Tom, “but I’m certainly not going in there before Valentine’s Day because I don’t want to be the one lucky guy who gets the call.”

Curley agrees it sounds like a plan that to him would drive more people away than it would bring in.

But another show listener actually did have a good experience with it. While Jim in Issaquah was also unaware of what was happening, he enjoyed the event.

I went into a McDonald’s last week for a cup of coffee. The cashier asked me to give her a fist bump, which confused me a bit but I did. She then told me my coffee was free. I put what I would have paid for the coffee into the Ronald McDonald house collection box you see at all McDonald’s.

Win, win I think.

But he admits he might not have felt so good about it if he’d been hit with one of the other kind acts accepted for payment.

“I might feel very differently had I been asked to dance with a stranger or sing,” Jim writes, “but the concept is a good one if not thought through about the possible discomfort some requests might engender.”