alan@cae780.UUCP (Alan M. Steinberg) (11/25/86)
Well, I think McDonalds has gone a little to far. They are giving away (or
selling?) Christmas stockings with the Fievel the Mouse character, from
the movie "An American Tail". But the character, Fievel Mousekowitz, is
supposed to be a Jewish mouse! How did this happen? How did Spielberg let
it happen? It's like selling toy Ghandi rifles.
It's a bad marketing ploy, and will be sure to confuse some children.
McDonalds should stick to Smurfs, which are at best non-denominational.
--
Alan Steinberg
tektronix!cae780!alan
GO BEARS! THE AXE IS OURS! trb@ima.UUCP (Andrew Tannenbaum) (11/26/86)
When I saw the McD's ads with a creature named Fievel in a Christmas vignette, well, let's say I was surprised. I haven't seen An American Tail and I don't really expect to soon, but it is bizarre to see a mouse with a Yiddish name hawking Christmas McDreck. Reminds me of one of those futuristic stories, where people follow customs with absolutely no notion of their origins. Maybe there will be Middle American babies named Fievel or Chaim Yankel or Nissen Mendel. Can't ya hardly wait? When I was growing up in the Bronx (ca 1970) there were two listings in the phone book for Shimura, one was a rabbi, the other was my Japanese friend. After seeing this ad, and before I knew that Fievel's last name was Mousekowitz, I was wondering whether maybe there were Fievels who weren't Jewish. The name Feivel might be derived from Flavius. Andrew Tannenbaum Interactive Boston, MA +1 617 247 1155
bruce@ektools.UUCP (Bruce D. Nelson ) (12/01/86)
In article <3067@cae780.UUCP> alan@cae780.UUCP (Alan M. Steinberg) writes: > >It's a bad marketing ploy, and will be sure to confuse some children. >McDonalds should stick to Smurfs, which are at best non-denominational. I second the motion. In the movie, Feivel celebrates Chanukah in Russia with his family. The Mousekowitz's live in a mousehole in the home of the Moskowitz's. (We were the only ones who laughed). After the Chanukah celebration there was a pogrom, the Russians on horses for the Jewish people and Russian cats for the Jewish mice. Its amazing how the lure of the extra $$$ can cause McD's and Sears to completely usurp the message of this movie. There's no connection between Fievel and Christmas at all. Maybe the execs at McD's and Sears have the holidays confused. So why, you might ask, with all this Jewishly negative connection of the McD's ad to the movie did we see it anyway. We took the kids because it helped explain some of their grandparents' history to them. (In response to one of the other replies, Fievel was named after Spielberg's grandfather.) So nu....who do we complain to (would it do any good?). They wouldn't miss the few bucks if we didn't see it. And boycotting McD's...don't we :-). "'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, Not a creature was stirring except Fievel the mouse" McD's commercial What do you expect...he's a Jewish mouse! I 'd stir on Christmas eve, too! -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bruce D. Nelson Product Line Systems USPS: EASTMAN KODAK CO., Dept. 407, 901 Elmgrove Rd., Rochester, NY 14650 VOICE: 716 726-7890 UUCP: {allegra, seismo}!rochester!kodak!ektools!bruce ARPA: kodak!ektools!bruce@rochester.ARPA