| Author |
Message |
    
anon
Supporter
Username: Anon
Post Number: 2830
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 4:22 pm: | 
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According to the Star-Ledger, Mayor Steve Lonegan is urging a boycott of McDonalds because they put up a billboard in his Town in Spanish. He says it is "divisive"! This is the yutz who held a demonstration in front of Columbia High School to sing Christmas Carols. Ironically the Town of which he is Mayor is Bogota, like the capital of Columbia! Why is the Town's name in Spanish? What does Mayor Lonegan intend to do about that? |
sac
Supporter
Username: Sac
Post Number: 3607
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 6:10 pm: |
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Of course, they don't pronounce it correctly at all (i.e. not like the Colombian pronunciation) so maybe that makes it OK?
I can think of lots of better reasons to boycott McDonalds, if I was of a mind to do so. (I don't go there much, but I probably won't change my habits either.) |
Bob K
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 12073
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 6:21 pm: |
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And then there is Karo, like the syrup, Illinois.
Maybe he should change the name of the Town to something like Loneganberg?
Or maybe Loonieville?
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notehead
Supporter
Username: Notehead
Post Number: 3545
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 11:41 am: |
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I wonder what our hard-core capitalist posters think about this? I mean, the local market has enough of a Latino population to make McD's feel that advertising in Spanish is a worthwhile investment. Nothing more to it than that, right?
Y un dia cuando todos los anuncios estan in espanol, los jovenes latinos no tienen algunas razones aprender ingles. |
dougw
Citizen
Username: Dougw
Post Number: 854
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 3:17 pm: |
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A free enterprise like McDonalds should be able to put up a billboard in any language they want.
They should also be able to pay any wage that they and their employees agree upon.
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newone
Citizen
Username: Newone
Post Number: 416
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 3:49 pm: |
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I saw the same Spanish/McD's billboard this morning when I was in Jersey City... |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 14941
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 4:33 pm: |
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At the Lowes in Union, every single sign is in both English and Spanish. Many of the excellent employees there struck me as bilingual, though I didn't ask. This is just good business. Sell what the customer wants.
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Face
Citizen
Username: Face
Post Number: 527
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 7:22 pm: |
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This is America. Businesses should be able to pay for such advertising, but customers (and non-customers) in opposition may also appropriately choose to protest. A national chain like McDonalds may do so and find themselves with booming business, or they risk turning customers into protesters.
Funny though, isn't there a politician in NY seeking to limit the number of fast food stores within a certain radius? |
Nohero
Supporter
Username: Nohero
Post Number: 5593
Registered: 10-1999
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 8:50 pm: |
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It's ridiculous to boycott a company, just because they advertise to customers in Spanish. |
Jersey_Boy
Citizen
Username: Jersey_boy
Post Number: 1353
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 9:55 pm: |
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Just post the fliers about the boycott in Spanish!
Jersey Nino |
Nohero
Supporter
Username: Nohero
Post Number: 5594
Registered: 10-1999
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 10:38 pm: |
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VINCENT
You know what they call a Quarter
Pounder with Cheese in Paris?
JULES
They don't call it a Quarter
Pounder with Cheese?
VINCENT
No, they got the metric system
there, they wouldn't know what the
f*** a Quarter Pounder is.
JULES
What'd they call it?
VINCENT
Royale with Cheese.
JULES
(repeating)
Royale with Cheese. What'd they
call a Big Mac?
VINCENT
Big Mac's a Big Mac, but they call
it Le Big Mac.
JULES
What do they call a Whopper?
VINCENT
I dunno, I didn't go into a Burger
King. But you know what they put
on french fries in Holland instead
of ketchup?
JULES
What?
VINCENT
Mayonnaise.
JULES
Goddamn!
VINCENT
I seen 'em do it. And I don't mean
a little bit on the side of the
plate, they f****n' drown 'em in
it.
JULES
Uuccch!
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daylaborer
Citizen
Username: Upondaroof
Post Number: 811
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 10:44 pm: |
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"Just post the fliers about the boycott in Spanish!
Jersey Nino"
This boy is a genius. I nominated him for governor, but now I'm thinking President! You go Hersey Nino. |
Factvsfiction
Citizen
Username: Factvsfiction
Post Number: 956
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 9:19 pm: |
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Nohero-
You re-writing " Waiting for Godot" for hamburgers? Where is Whimpey from " Popeye the Sailor Man"?
Nothing wrong with the billboard being in Spanish.
Lonegan should shut his trap. |
Nohero
Supporter
Username: Nohero
Post Number: 5600
Registered: 10-1999
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 9:33 pm: |
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That's from "Pulp Fiction" - but, you make a good point. The Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta conversations in that movie could be descended from "Waiting for Godot".
And you also make a good point about the mayor of Bogota, NJ
That is, pronounced as "Buh-GO-dah", not that Spanish "BO-gah-ta" |
Chalmers
Citizen
Username: Chalmers
Post Number: 175
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 9:51 pm: |
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A friend of mine made a superb documentary called "Anytown, U.S.A." about the last Bogota mayoral election, which included Lonegan and two other candidates. Though the film doesn't take sides, Lonegan provides a lot of choice material.
http://www.sirkproductions.com/anytownusa/site/index_New.html |
Factvsfiction
Citizen
Username: Factvsfiction
Post Number: 958
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 11:17 pm: |
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Nohero-
Well, you do have an existentialist take on anti-semitism, hence my Godot reference.
My understanding, limited as it may be, about the billboard controversy is that it seems the concern is that it will effect "property values".
In simple english, that they will decline if the town is perceived as becoming more "ethnic".
The fact of the matter is that the country's hispanic population is on it's way
to becoming the largest minority group, hispanics as a group are becoming increasingly economically successful and affluent, and a good number of the projected 1 million new residents expected to come to NJ will be hispanic.
Seems to me that having a business sign in Spanish might be perceived to be a welcoming sign of tolerance and acceptance to these individuals, and actually help increase the property values in this Bozo's town rather than the opposite. |
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