"Democrats and Republicans both prefer Burger King" and "McDonald's prefers Republicans" Hmm, doesn't sound like McDonald's has made the right choice.

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McDonald’s wants politicians to jettison partisanship and choose ‘lovin’,’ hamburgers
By Philip Bump, January 5, 2015

This is from a McDonald's ad.



The spot is called "Arch Enemies" (DO YOU GET IT) and features other unlikely pairs bonding abstractly over McDonald's food: Batman and the Joker, a dog and a mailman (been done), and — to cater to those #Millennials and their disposable income — Spongebob and Plankton. (It also goes for Gen X with Bowser and Mario/the Smurfs and Gargamel, but making fun of Gen X isn't cool or funny.) "Choose lovin'," it ends.

So this is the state of American partisanship! "LOL," an international food conglomerate's advertising consultants say, "can you even imagine if Democrats and Republicans got along? That's as unlikely as Dorothy and the Wicked Witch getting along!" Which is another little part of the animation: The Witch taking a selfie as Dorothy joins her on her broom, instead of what really happened, which is that Dorothy murdered her.

(Why are they doing this? AdAge quotes a press release: "The chain is instead 'reigniting' the 'I'm lovin' it' theme 'by introducing a new platform that puts more focus on lovin',' said the company in a statement." Ha ha ha ha okay.)

So let's play along, for kicks. What is the overlap between McDonald's and politics, anyway?

Democrats and Republicans both prefer Burger King

In 2013, Public Policy Polling surveyed Americans on their fast food choices, finding that a plurality of both Democrats and Republicans prefer Burger King to McDonald's. A fifth of Republicans said BK was their favorite; almost a quarter of Democrats did. But even Wendy's did better than McDonald's, with 19 percent of members of both parties preferring it to the Golden Arches. (Because of Frostys, we assume.) Even fewer independents liked McDonald's: only 11 percent of them said it was their favorite, to 15 percent of Dems and 16 percent of Republicans.

The winner for least favorite fast food chain among members of both parties? McDonald's, with a fifth of each party and the group of independents rating it worst.

However! A silver lining, of sorts: More members of each group would rather vote for Ronald McDonald as president than the Burger King?

McDonald's prefers Republicans

At least, if the corporation's political contributions are any guide. Here's how much the company's PAC has given to members of both parties over time. In every cycle since 1998, Republicans have received more in contributions.

[Chart]

These are not huge sums of money, we'll note. In 2014, Koch Industries gave $7.7 million to candidates, for comparison's sake. It's perhaps in part due to the things that the company is focused on. It spends far more lobbying members of Congress, focusing on issues such as immigration, labor law and taxation.

A donkey and an elephant are physically incapable of hugging

But that's a more minor point.

If this whole thing sounds an awful lot like the No Labels/moderate mantra of "put your differences aside and do the things that centrist business interests want," we're sure that's simply a coincidence. Anyway, we're off to McDonald's. If a burger joint can bring even King Kong and some biplanes together (as it can, per this ad), who are we to say no?
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