McDonald's (partially lost early Japanese TV commercials for fast food chain; 1973-1976)

A vintage Japanese McDonald's advertisement.

Status: Partially Lost

On the 20th of July, 1971 (Japanese time), fast food restaurant chain McDonald's had finally reached the Asian shores at the Ginza branch of the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo, Japan. The first television commercial was aired on Japanese TV in 1973.

Availability

While the Japanese McDonald's TV commercials from 1977 onward are available on the internet, the earlier commercials which originally aired between 1973 and 1976 can't be found anywhere. In February 27, 2018, a user named "Nancy Philip" uploaded commercials that are from 1975 and it included the McDonald's commercial.

There are possibilities that there is no recorded footage of the commercials (besides a commercial from 1975) due to many people in Japan at the time not owning any recording media other than cassette tapes which were only capable of recording sound. However, due to the fact that the Japanese branch of McDonald's has the data for the air date of the first commercial, it is likely that the company owns the original print.

Descriptions

Several people who have seen the commercials at the time state that they were bizarre, comedic live-action ads which didn't quite look like they were advertising for restaurants. One of the commercials seemed to involve Ronald McDonald rowing a wooden boat on the river, but it quickly lands on the shore without Ronald noticing.

See Also

• McDonald's (found "New Slang" commercial from fast food restaurant; 2002)
• The Incredibles (found full version of McDonald's Happy Meal commercial for Pixar animated film; 2004)
• McDonald's "Archy Dancing" (lost commercial from fast food franchise; early 1960s)
• Mcjuniorclub TV (partially found Nickelodeon Netherlands/McDonald's live-action short series; 2008)
• Ronald McDonald and the Adventure Machine (found McDonald's animated video; 1987)
• YumChums (partially lost British McDonald's TV commercials; 2004)
• Valerie's Family Fire Prevention (partially found McDonald's sponsored TV ads; 1987)
• McDonald's eCrew Development Program (found McDonald's Japan Nintendo DS training game; 2010)
• McDonald's "You Better Don't" (lost "Defend Your Chicken Selects" commercial from fast food franchise; 2004)

External Link

• A Wikipedia page on the Mitsukoshi department stores.