Mayor McCheese Welcomes You to Chicagoland
I know I haven't posted to this weblog for awhile---with the baby on the way, the baby-related weblog is taking up all of my blogging energy, I'm afraid. I had to post this, though, because of it's sheer absurdity.
Mike and I were driving back from Indianapolis today, and as we passed through Gary, Indiana, we saw the weirdest sign. On I-90, with the stench and the view of the foundries to our right, there was a big, seemingly brand new billboard to our left, with the message, "Mayor McCheese Welcomes You to Chicagoland." As for graphics, here's what you see---a picture of the long-forgotten Mayor McCheese (would kids today even understand the whole "it takes a village" advertising McDonald's put out when I was a kid?) with the Chicago skyline in the background. The fact that you can hardly breathe at that point due to the horrifying smell of steel-related pollution makes it fascinating to me that anyone would try to advertise food at that part of the road. The fact that Mayor McCheese is the hip, kid-friendly character they've chosen to welcome people anywhere is equally strange. Adding to the crazy---since when is Gary, Indiana, Chicagoland? Am I missing something? I grew up in a town on Lake Michigan in the general Chicago vicinity, but I would never venture to say it was "Chicagoland." What gives?
So, so bizarre.
2 comments:
Heh -- I keep thinking of the "Outbreak" episode of the short-lived Clerks cartoon, with Al Franken as Mayor McCheese (well, technically, as the mayor of Leonardo, New Jersey, stuck in a Mayor McCheese costume).
He keeps trying to answer questions about the biohazard, and the reporters keep asking him McDonald's-related questions.
FInallym, he's asked "Could the virus kill the Grimace?" and responds with one of my favorite television lines: "Nothing can kill the Grimace."
that's been there for a few years. there are two. if you're going west on 90 from gary, you'll see them w/in a few miles of each other.
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