#mcdonalds 2023 ad

[nadaahhmed]

This McDonald's 2023 #RaiseYourArches commercial is marketing genius! Click on the link to find out why📽

[burgers-in-anime]

From September 1, 2023 to September 14, 2023, McDonald's Japan will have promotional tie-ins with Spy × Family and Chiikawa. Happy Meals will contain either a Spy × Family colouring book, or a set of Chiikawa sticker sheets — all McDonald's themed.

(full story here)

[shinigami-striker]

[McDonald's] ft. Crash Team Rumble | Tuesday, 12.05.2023

For a limited time at McDonald's, fans of Crash Bandicoot can get a Happy Meal with some random Crash Team Rumble goodies inside (while supplies last).

[manster426]

2023

[duranduratulsa]

70s McDonalds Gift Certificate Christmas Commercial

Christmas 🎄 Commercial of the day: McDonald's Christmas Commercial #commercial #ad #tvad #mcdonalds #christmas #70s #merrychristmas #merrychristmas2023

[kollectorsrus]

[norizzsainz]

🌶️ NFY : MCDONALD'S FOR P

[ carlos sainz x singer!fem!reader ] [ wc ] 0.9k words

[ summary ] carlos' and y/n's breakup comes as a surprise to many of their friends. no one ever thought the couple would ever break up, but alas, y/n was always ready to do whatever was best for the love of her life — even if it meant breaking up with him.

[ loki's lines ] this was so much better in my head, contemplating if it should've just stayed there

previous | masterlist | next

━━━━━━━ DECEMBER 03, 2023

max would've burst into laughter on any other day when he saw the way you had arrived at his doorstep.

you wore a hoodie; the strings tightly tied until only your eyes could be seen.

he offered a small smile as your eyes met; brows raised when you lifted a bag to his face.

“mcdonald's for p,” you mumbled. “got you and kelly some food, too.”

max tried not to let his smile fall as he heard your voice, the hoarse tone letting him know you had a really bad cry session — or even multiple of them.

“come on in,” he stated, nodding you inside as he stepped aside after taking the bags from you. “thanks for the food. p will love you forever.”

you only let out a tired chuckle at his words, not adding anything more. max frowned at your lack of response, realizing something was really wrong with you.

you loved p more than anything, and the fact you didn’t say much about max’s words were enough of an indicator as to how bad the situation was.

“aw, babes.” kelly walked towards you with a frown. “what are you trying to do? suffocate yourself?”

“honestly, right now, i'd love that,” you commented with a sigh, wincing as kelly untied the hoodie. “thanks, kels.”

the frown on kelly's face didn't fade; her brows furrowed as she sat you down on the sofa. she observed you well, her gaze softening as she met your bloodshot eyes.

“this isn't like you, y/n. what's wrong?”

max's heart shattered as he watched the way your face scrunched, trying to hold back the inevitable tears that made their way down your face.

you covered your face with your hands, crying harder when kelly pulled you into her embrace, trying to offer any sort of comfort.

“y/n ...” max stood next to you, patting your hair gently as his girlfriend rubbed your back. “tell us what's wrong so we can help.”

“h-he said we had t-to break up.” max frowned, exchanging glances with kelly as you hiccupped over your words.

“carlos? was it his idea to break up?” kelly inquired, confused.

you pulled away from the hug, meeting her gaze. “not carlos.” you shook your head, wiping away your tears with your sleeve.

max tilted his head. “who was it, then?” he asked, waiting for your response.

“his dad. he said we had to break up.”

the couple’s eyes widened, never having guessed your ex-boyfriend’s father would’ve intervened in the relationship and forced you to break up with him.

“what? why the fuck would he do that?”

max sat on the coffee table in front of the sofa you sat on, fisting his hands by his side as he looked at you. 

the man’s frown never faded, staring at you. “why did he tell you to break up with carlos?” he asked, teeth gritted to control his anger.

“he said i was messing up carlos’ focus,” you mumbled, looking at your feet. “told me to break up with him if i genuinely care about his career.”

“so, you broke up with him?!” max raised his voice, flabbergasted by your words. “what the fuck, y/n? why would you do something like that?”

“because i love him, max.” the couple’s hearts shattered as they heard the crack in your voice. “i broke up because i love him.”

“you can’t be serious, y/n.”

“i hate this more than anything, but i’ll have to deal with it. i know how hard carlos has worked to come this far, and i can’t just sit still, knowing i’m the reason he’s fucking up his dream.”

max frowned, shaking his head. “just because he fucks up his races doesn’t mean you are the reason for it, y/n,” he stated, trying to make you understand.

“i am, max. i know that very well.”

“come on, you know–”

“five times, max,” you countered, looking at him. “five times, carlos purposefully did not qualify for the races because he wanted to be there for me,” you confessed.

you watched the way kelly’s face dropped, while max’s expressions remained stoic.

he had noticed too. he knew.

you saw him take a deep breath, biting his lip as he contemplated what to say.

“so, do you think his performance will become better now that you’ve broken up?” max inquired, raising his brows. “because if he doesn't, then this would all be in vain, no?”

“this is what his dad asked for, and i–”

max shrugged. “you are just fulfilling his wishes, obviously. this ‘fucking up his focus’ was just a sad excuse,” he said.

“his dad never liked you, babes,” kelly spoke, patting your back gently. “don't you think this entire thing was just some excuse to get you guys to break up?”

you buried your face in your hands, trying to control your breathing as you sat back on the sofa. everything was overwhelming you right now, and it was sending your brain into overdrive.

these were the moments when carlos would be there for you; listening to your thoughts and sorting them out for you.

but, he wasn't going to be there for you anymore. you had to deal with this on your own.

“whether it's an excuse or not,” you stated, looking at your friends through your teary eyes. “we've broken up now.”

“and that's–”

“and that's that.” you were stern with your words. “i'm tired of all this. i just want some peace and quiet, okay? just wanna forget about this all and go back to living life as i normally do.”

kelly nodded supportively. “if that's what you want, that's what we'll do,” she said, pulling you into her embrace.

“we got your back, y/n,” max added, wrapping his arms around you two. “forever and always.”

you smiled into the hug, utterly failing to keep the tears from falling down.

“thank you for being there for me, guys. i love you both so fucking much.”

[cityof2morrow]

3t2: The Market Basket 001

Published: 1-14-2024 | Updated: N/A SUMMARY Build and buy mode items inspired by The Market Basket, a grocery store from Sims 3: Showtime (EA/Maxis, 2012). This is not an exact conversion. I’ve made several changes and added items based on my own gameplay needs.

DETAILS Requires all EPs/SPs. §100-1000 | Build/Buy Mode All files with “MESH” in their filenames are REQUIRED for all textures/recolors to show properly. This set requires the Repository Pack (Simmons, 2023) and BBNiche1Master (Buggybooz, 2012 – also included in the Repository Pack). You’ll also need one of the following: Shift Everything (Lamare, 2022) OR Object Freedom 1.02 (Fway, 2023).

WARNING: The DiGiMART Grocery Vendor has pulsing, flashing, and glowing light effects. If you are sensitive to visual noise, please download the LIGHT SENSITIVE version of this set. Only use ONE version in-game at a time.

The set includes matching recolors for Poster Pack 001 (Simmons, 2023). ITEMS Billboard (3070 poly, HIGH) Door Frame 001-002 (56-224 poly) Mini Signs 1-2 (92 poly) Single/Double Bollard (60-120 poly) Bulletin Boards 1-4 (18 poly) Shopping Cart (456 poly) Ceiling Lamp (56 poly) Columns (1-Story/2-Story/3-Story) (210-442 poly) Fences 001-002 (Orange/White) (180-315 poly) Garage (Deco) (36 poly) Grocery Display (82 poly) – holds up to 18 nonperishable items. HVAC Units 001-004 (Deco) (18-900 poly) Hanging/Standing Signs 001-002 (26 poly) Store Signs 001-002 (824 poly) Wall Signs 001-002 (18 poly) Rooms 001-002 (Frame/Roof) (672-978 poly) Building Trim (1-Tile/3-Tile) (4 poly) DigiMART Grocery Vendor (72-224 poly) – functional grocery kiosk DOWNLOAD (choose one) REGULAR VERSION (w light effects) from SFS | from MEGA LIGHT SENSITIVE VERSION (no light effects) from SFS | from MEGA SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED Be sure to place door frame 001 and 002 on the same tile. The building frame/roof objects fit 4x18 and 11x24 rooms respectively. Grab them on the front, left tile (see pic).

CREDITS Thanks: UV Mapping Tips (Frac, 2024 via SimCrafters Discord), Visual Noise Feedback (Despondenthottie, 2024). Sources: Any Color You Like (CuriousB, 2010), Bank (TruForm, 2015), BBNiche1Master (BuggyBooz, 2012), Beyno (Korn via BBFonts), EA/Maxis, Great Groceries Display (Balkopat, 2020), Imagery (Freepik, 2023; 2016; 2014; Macrovector, 2020), Lay Me Low – Sims 3t2 ‘Late Night’ Metropolitan Buildings – Part 5 (Misty_Fluff, 2013), 3t2 Market Ads (Amovitam, 2012), Offuturistic Infographic (Freepik), Solar Panel (Autumn Rose, 2020; EA/Maxis, 2020), Supermarket Concepts (Yaun, 2017; McDonald, 2017).

[mazeofyeni]

(🔴) ... [ NOW PLAYING ] [SKZ LOG] Stray Kids : 어쩌다 촬영한 하루｜2023 STAYweeK !

"damn it." she whispered to herself , "kaia." chan sighed , knowing the camera definitely picked it up. "i left my head phones in the dorms." she stressed. "im forced to sit in the middle and i forget my head phones."

"you're the shortest , the shortest sit in the middle." she scoffed. "oppa , does that really matter , we're all short." hyunjin reached behind handing her the mic.

she set the mic up , putting it in her back pocket , as they drove off. "you can always drive." you shook her head. "not in this traffic , we'd never make it."

she rested her head on chan's shoulder , when changbin spoke up. "what should we eat?"

"for me , the fundamental." hyunjin said from the front seat. "bulgogi burger."

"chicken nuggets and fries." she said. "as expected our 3 year old kaia." she smiled as they pulled into the gas station , seungmin getting out to fill up the tank.

"should i get out and get a snack?" she debated with herself. "i think i have some in my bag , i should be fine." she decided. "there's probably some at the house." seungmin climbed back into the car. "i know, but you can't go wrong with more."

they pulled into the McDonald's drive through. "i want a mcflurry with my nuggets and fries." she said. "thank you."

she held the food bag in her hands , taking her nuggets out sitting the bag in between her legs , shoving fries into her mouth.

"you don't dip your fries in your ice cream?" chan asked her , she looked at him in disgust. "why would i do such a thing?" he laughed. "because it's good." she shook her in. "oh absolutely not."

once she was finished her fries , she ate seungmin's fries. "yah , you should've gotten two." he scolded , handing her the basket. "just eat them." she smiled like a child , he flicked her forehead.

she finished her food , leaning back fatigue clouding her senses. "kaia , ah cute." hyunjin watched her fall in and out sleep.

"don't fall asleep like that , you'll hurt your neck." changbin said , she leaned her head on seungmin's shoulder and she was somehow able to go to sleep amidst hyunjin and chan's mini concert.

their car was the first to arrive. "kaia." seungmin poked the girls cheek. "get up." he squished her cheek — she slowly opened her eyes. "you better not have drooled on my shirt." she scoffed tiredly. "i don't drool."

once they arrived to the villa she went into the room she'd be sleeping in , only to return to the livingroom where they were rolling dice to see who'd cook dinner.

"kaia come." changbin grabbed her arm , her eyes widen as she tried to figure out what was going on. "why why why." she was confused because they were laughing. "how'd i get caught in this , where are we going?" she followed him.

"we're gonna get the card , for karaoke. " he held her hand as they walked to the car. "ah okay."

they quickly retrieved the card , returning back to the house. "you dragged me out the house simply so you could get the card." she pouted sitting down. "it was dark." she scoffed. "she's just as scared of the dark as you are." she scoffed.

she helped cook dinner , while everyone sang in the livingroom , watching them all scream the lyrics to songs.

"should we start with gods menu?" hyunjin went through their old music videos. "let's watch our old ones." her eyes widen. "let's not do that." she said , not wanting to see her old self.

"kaia look." they all pointed the screen. "ah cute!" she hid her red face. "my hair is so much longer." she said. "your pink hair was nice , your baby face." she laughed. "stays say they miss my pink hair."

"gods menu is where we became stray kids." she nodded. "it was like a shift , a big one." she added.

"watching levanter is always hard for me." she said. "right , you weren't able to preform on stage." she nodded. "that's when you injured your back." han said.

"during practice of all things , i just wanted to do well , then i ended up over doing it , it was horrible." she remembered back.

"during our fanmeeting , we said our individual words , right?" changbin asked.

"i cried , i don't even know why." she laughed. "because you always cry." she nodded. "im and emotional person." she said. "i think it's because when we were rookies , it wasn't easy receiving love from stays , so now im always overwhelmed when i do." felix pinched her cheek. "ah cute!" she swatted his hand away.

after a really heartfelt conversation , they all cleaned up for the night , hanging out for the rest of the night.

"why'd you guys have to get so emotional." she pouted , sitting on the couch. "don't cry." felix patted her head. "im not."

she sat back , listening to them sing neverending story.

©️LUVYENI

[hookhausenschips]

Burning Rubber

F1 Masterlist

Burning Rubber Masterlist

Chapter Eight

▶️ 8.2

nephthys added to her story!

seen by charles_leclerc, riabish, olivernorris1, and others

25 November 2023

iMessage

ItsAzhaTheDrifter

liked by landonorris, riabish, oscarpiastri, Jirani636, and others

tagged: landonorris, JaKhel636, Lianaaaababy, Jirani636, GianaLenae96

ItsAzhaTheDrifter: life after being discharged; 1) hospital had some vibes. 2) tea time with my brothers. 3) my sister won’t leave my bed, she snores. 4) movie nights. 5) Lando is a fat cunt who doesn’t share. 6) Ja Khel’s dog is now my dog. 7) I didn’t believe Lando could DJ so he pulled out his set up. Loser. 8) I forced Jirani to take me to McDonald’s at 3 in the morning. 9) Ja Khel is on the loose in the drive thru.

32,639 Comments:

user: the fact Lando really brought out his entire dj equipment is killing me😭

> user: no literally

landonorris: I’m definitely not sharing with you now

> ItsAzhaTheDrifter: I hope McLaren doesn’t need you because I will run you over.

nandolorrislover: how does she know Lando? She doesn’t seem like his type🤢

> driftrc520: they’re not even dating. Sit down child.

carlossainz55: can confirm he never shares :/

> ItsAzhaTheDrifter: come get him before he ends up missing fingers stealing my fries!!!

> landonorris: you wouldn’t hurt me

> ItsAzhaTheDrifter: one like and I smack him

liked by maxfewtrell, charles_leclerc, carlossainz55, and oscarpiastri

user: I really am loving Azha and Lando’s friendship

> user: yeah “friendship”. I can sense the romance from here

27 November 2023

nephthys added to her story!

seen by maxfewtrell, carmenmmundt, francisca.cgomes, riabish, and others

Replies:

maxfewtrell: please say you’re alive after letting him drive😅

> nephthys: barely 😰

Lianaaaababy: as if you weren’t enjoying the view🙄

> nephthys: I’m not bringing you anything 😐

riabish: the duo is back🥹

> nephthys: don’t tell him, I miss you the most🖤

27 November 2023

landonorris added to his story!

seen by olivernorris1, maxfewtrell, mclaren, carlossainz55, and others

Replies:

maxfewtrell: did you finally ask her out?

> landonorris: no…

riabish: if you don’t ask her out already I am setting her up with someone

olivernorris1: you two would be a beautiful couple, mum and dad agree

carlossainz55: do it already.

29 November 2023

[taviokapudding]

Protestors consistently ruining the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade footage is actually really great & keep boosting their footage when you see it

Every company featured in the parade sets up a contract (similar to the super bowl) where they buy a spot to then get a l a r g e endorsement via placing their ad on a float or in a balloon. Within the line up this year McDonald's, one of the biggest pro-genocide donators, got a large balloon rather than a float. This is important because balloons gets more air time than floats because of their size. On top of that floats may not have guests performing & paying for someone to perform; ideally McDonald's wanted to have a longer air time with their balloon without paying an hourly cost for performers. More air time = more ad revenue = more eyes seeing them = more customers.

The move by pro-Palestinian protestors to jump in front of McDonald's does 2 things:

1. McDonald's is getting less air time than what they were contractually promised, it'll be up to them to request what is owed (because it depends on the agreement made) by Macy's to them

2. And it messes with NBC's obligations with Peacock as the 2nd most important party of the parade + 3rd party in all contracts

So while McDonald's loses money and Macy's is scrambling to figure out how to loophole their way out of not losing money to owe McDonald's, NBC gets fucked too.

Since Oct 7, 2023, NBC has been one of many US news media outlets who actively lied to the US masses. But why do they matter for the parade? Their job is to be the main outlet who records and then uses their main platform, Peacock, to stream the parade. If protestors are seen throughout all your footage, delay large portions, and cause enough disruption to the footage being aired- that means they don't and won't immediately have their show footage ready to go.

Peacock does an offer every year to new customers to watch the parade for a $1.99 USD (not including taxes) monthly plan that can be canceled at any time with the first month free; but in the last 4+hrs after the parade aired people aren't going to stay for the year because their is no footage as promised. I actually have been checking throughout today and it's not available at all.

So not only is McDonald's going to be hemorrhaging alongside with all the other companies whose footage got cut or edited out to match the contractually obligated run time & censor protestors, but both NBC and Peacock will be losing money with each minute they don't have enough footage and a full stream to air- which is money that Macy's was also supposed to get a cut of. Which btw it's now 5pm cst the same day and there's still no footage - which is a $ problem for Peacock & NBC when folks prioritize now finding a service to watch the Superbowl > Parades.

Do not be surprised if Macy's stuff becomes more expensive and the possibility they'll change which news media outlet + streaming service covers the 2024 parade occurs. And yeah, McDonald's is going to become more expensive than it already is long term. Everybody who were financially complicit in the death of 14,000+ Palestinian men, women, and children will have a financially shit end of the year and rough 2024.

In short, despite the arrests, the protestors who sat & glued themselves to the parade route and those who stayed in the crowd to hold up flags and signs throughout really won. A 4 day cease fire for a very obviously one sided genocide isn't enough & tons of rich people are learning the hard way (as I post) that this is the beginning of their punishment by the universe for the actions.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Rural towns and poor urban neighborhoods are being devoured by dollar stores

Across America, rural communities and big cities alike are passing ordinances limiting the expansion of dollar stores, which use a mix of illegal predatory tactics, labor abuse, and monopoly consolidation to destroy the few community grocery stores that survived the Walmart plague and turn poor places into food deserts.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/27/walmarts-jackals/#cheater-sizes

"The Dollar Store Invasion," is a new Institute For Local Self Reliance (ILSR) report by Stacy Mitchell, Kennedy Smith and Susan Holmberg. It paints a detailed, infuriating portrait of the dollar store playback, and sets out a roadmap of tactics that work and have been proven in dozens of places, rural and urban:

https://cdn.ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ILSR-Report-The-Dollar-Store-Invasion-2023.pdf

The impact of dollar stores is plainly stated in the introduction: "dollar stores drive grocery stores and other retailers out of business, leave more people without access to fresh food, extract wealth from local economies, sow crime and violence, and further erode the prospects of the communities they target."

This new report builds on ILSR's longstanding and excellent case-studies, augmenting them with the work of academic geographers who are just starting to literally map out the dollar store playbook, identifying the way that a dollar stores will target, say, the last grocery store in a Black neighborhood and literally surround it, like hyenas cornering weakened prey. This tactic is repeated whenever a new grocer opens in the neighborhood: dollar stores "carpet bomb" the surrounding blocks, ensuring that the new store closes as quickly as it opens.

One important observation is the relationship between these precarious neighborhood grocers and Walmart and its other big-box competitors. Deregulation allowed Walmart to ring cities with giant stores that relied on "predatory buying" (wholesale terms that allowed Walmart to sell goods more cheaply than its competitors bought them, and also rendered its suppliers brittle and sickly, and forced down the wages of those suppliers' workers). This was the high cost of low prices: neighborhoods lost their local grocers, and community dollars ceased to circulate in the community, flowing to Walmart and its billionaire owners, who spent it on union busting and political campaigns for far-right causes, including the defunding of public schools.

This is the landscape where the dollar stores took root: a nation already sickened by an apex predator, which left a productive niche for jackals to pick off the weakened survivors. Wall Street loved the look of this: the Private equity giant KKR took over Dollar General in 2007 and went on a acquisition and expansion bonanza. Even after KKR formally divested itself of Dollar General, the company's hit-man Michael M Calbert stayed on the board, rising to chairman.

The dollar store market is a duopoly. Dollar General's rival is Dollar Tree, another gelatinous cube of a company that grew by absorbing many of its competitors, using Wall Street's money. These acquisitions are now notorious for the weaknesses they exposed in antitrust practice. For example, when Dollar Tree bought Family Dollar, growing to 14,000 stores, the FTC waved the merger through on condition that the new business sell off 330 of them. These ineffectual and pointless merger conditions are emblematic of the inadequacy of antitrust as it was practiced from the Reagan administration until the sea-change under Biden, and Dollar Tree/Family Dollar is the poster child for more muscular enforcement.

The duopoly has only grown since then. Today, Dollar General and Dollar Tree have more than 34,000 US outlets - more than Starbucks, #Walmart, McDonalds and Target - combined.

Destroying a community's grocery store rips out its heart. Neighborhoods without decent access to groceries impose a tax on their already-struggling residents, forcing them to spend hours traveling to more affluent places, or living off the highly processed, deceptively priced (more on this later) goods for sale on the dollar store shelves.

Take Cleveland, once served by a small family chain called Dave's Market that had served its communities since the 1920s. Dave's store in the Collinwood neighborhood was targeted by Family Dollar and Dollar General, which opened seven stores within two miles of the Dave's outlet. The dollar stores targeted the only profitable part of Dave's business - the packaged goods (fresh produce is a money-loser, subsidized by packaged good).

The dollar stores used a mix of predatory buying and "cheater sizes" (packaged goods that are 10-20% smaller than those sold in regular outlets, which are not available to other retailers) to sell goods at prices that Dave's couldn't match, driving Dave's out of business.

Typical dollar stores stock no fresh produce or meat. If your only grocer is a dollar store, your only groceries are highly processed, packaged foods, often sold in deceptive single-serving sizes that actually cost more per ounce than the products that the defunct neighborhood grocer once sold.

Dollar stores don't just target existing food deserts - they create them. Dollar stores preferentially target Black and brown neighborhoods with just a single grocer and then they use predatory pricing (subsidizing the cost of goods and selling them at a loss) and predatory buying to force that grocery store under and tip the neighborhood into food desert status.

Dollar stores don't just target Black and brown urban centers; they also go after rural communities. The commonality here is that both places are likely to be served by independent grocers, not chains, and these indies can't afford a pricing war with the Wall Street-backed dollar store duopoly.

As mentioned, the "predatory buying" of dollar stores is illegal - it was outlawed in 1936 under the Robinson-Patman Act, which required wholesalers to offer goods to all merchants on the same terms. 40 years ago, we stopped enforcing those laws, leading the rise and rise of big box stores and the destruction of the American Main Street.

The lawmakers who passed Robinson-Patman knew what they were doing. They were aware of what contemporary economists call "the waterbed effect," where wholesalers cover the losses from their massive discounts to major retailers by hiking prices on smaller stores, making them even less competitive and driving more market consolidation.

When dollar stores invade your town or neighborhood, they don't just destroy the food choices, they also come for neighborhood jobs. Where a community grocer typically employs 12 or more people, Dollar General employs about 8 per store. Those workers are paid less, too: 92% of Dollar General's workers earn less than $15/h, making Dollar General the worst employer of the 66 large service-sector firms.

Dollar stores also lean heavily into the tactic of turning nearly every role at its store into a "management" job, because managers aren't entitled to overtime pay. That's how you can be the "manger" of a dollar store and take home $40,000 a year while working more than 40 hours every single week.

Understaffing stores turns them into crime magnets. Shootings at dollar stores are routine. Between 2014-21, 485 people were shot at dollar stores - 156 of them died. Understaffed warehouses are vermin magnets. In the Eastern District of Arkansas, Family Dollar was subpoenaed after a rat infestation at its distribution centers that contaminated the food, medicines and cosmetics at 400 stores.

The ILSR doesn't just document the collapse of American communities - it fights back, so this report ends with a lengthy section on proven tactics and future directions for repelling the dollar store invasion. Since 2019, 75 communities have blocked proposals for new dollar stores - more than 50 of those cases happened in 2021/22.

54 towns, from Birmingham, AB to Fort Worth, TX to  Kansas City, KS, have passed laws to "sharply restrict new dollar stores, typically by barring them from opening within one to two miles of an existing dollar store."

To build on this momentum, the authors call for a "reinvigoration of antitrust laws," especially the Robinson-Patman Act. Banning predatory buying would go far to creating a level playing field for independent grocers hoping to fight off a dollar store infestation.

Further, we need the FTC and Department of Justice Antitrust Divition to block mergers between dollar-store chains and unwind the anticompetitve mergers that were negligently waved through under previous administrations (thankfully, top enforcers like Jonathan Kantor and Lina Khan are on top of this!).

We need to free up capital for community banks that will back community grocers. That means rolling back the bank deregulation of the 1980s/90s that allowed for bank consolidation and preferential treatment for large corporations, while reducing lending to small businesses and destroying regional banks. Congress should cap the market share any bank can hold, break up the biggest banks, and require banks to preference loans for community businesses. We also need to end private equity and Wall Street's rollup bonanza.

All of that sounds like a tall order - and it is! But the good news is that it's not just groceries at stake here. Every kind of community business, from pet groomers to hairdressers to funeral homes, falls into the antitrust "Twilight Zone," of acquisitions under $101m. With 60% of Boomer-owned businesses expected to sell in the coming decade, 2.9m businesses employing 32m American workers are slated to be gobbled up by private equity:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/16/schumpeterian-terrorism/#deliberately-broken

Whether you're burying a loved one, getting dialysis, getting your cat fixed or having your dog's nails trimmed, you are already likely to be patronizing a business that has been captured by private equity, where the service is worse, the prices are higher and the workers earn less for harder jobs. Everyone has a stake in financial regulation. We are all in this fight, except for the eminently guillotineable PE barons, and you know, fuck those guys

At the state level, the authors propose new muscular enforcement regimes and new laws to protect small businesses from unfair competition. They also call on states to increase the power of local governments to reject new dollar store applications, amending land use guidelines to require "cultivating net economic growth, ensuring that everyone has access to healthy food, and protecting environmental resources.

If all of this has you as fired up as it got me this morning, check out ILSR's "How to Stop Dollar Stores in Your Community" resources:

http://ilsr.org/dollar-stores

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon’s Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they’re DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

Image: Mike McBey (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/158652122@N02/38893547595/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[Image ID: A ghost town; it is towered over by a haunted castle with a Dollar General sign on it, with the shadow of Count Orlock cast over its tower. One of its turrets is being struck by lightning.]

[quu-kii]

If Crash felt bad about taking Cortex's food and decided to get another happy meal for him

(Based off the 2023 Crash McDonalds ad)

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (December 17-23, 2023)

Episode 7 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters laid down significant Monsterverse lore, showing the moment Monarch finally revealed itself to the public (under hilarious circumstances) and how the organization's partnership with Apex Cybernetics began. I did not find May's long-awaited backstory super compelling, to be honest, I think because the proto-Apex company was so thinly sketched. And that Frost-Vark better not be dead. :(

An incredible three Godzilla comics released last week: DC/Legendary's Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #3 and IDW's Godzilla: War for Humanity #3 and Godzilla Rivals: Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon. The crossover lit a certain section of the Internet on fire with the revelation that Godzilla did, in fact, kill Superman the previous issue. Writer Brian Buccellato chalked it up to Godzilla's atomic breath having "a radioactive signature similar to [K]ryptonite," which as handwaves go is pretty good. Behemoth and Scylla had moments to shine as well, and the issue ended with Lex Luthor discovering a Mechagodzilla eye. Glad Godzilla won't be the only Toho character in the comic; that would've been a bit lame.

Godzilla: War for Humanity remaining a thrilling read, and the Super MOGUERA debuting in this issue is not to be missed. Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon starts with a content warning for depiction and discussion of attempted suicide, which certainly surprised me. It's another strong issue, neither callous nor didactic, and told so efficiently there's plenty of room for the titular bout (which sometimes has felt like an afterthought in Rivals stories). Also, Jet Jaguar talks—something Toho forbade in a comic earlier this year, for whatever reason. Anyway, he's exactly the 'bot you would expect him to be. Hope IDW can keep him chattering in the future.

You've probably seen my flurry of posts already, but it bears repeating: The Boulet Brothers' Dragula, a drag reality competition found on Shudder, aired a kaiju episode. Reality TV isn't my bag, but I thoroughly enjoyed the competitors' kaiju-inspired costumes and performances. I also kept ping-ponging between awe that Americans are just expected to know what a kaiju is now and yelling at the hosts for, say, not naming any kaiju outside of Toho's Big Five.

Hot on the heels of the black-and-white re-release of Shin Godzilla comes Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color, which has to be the best title one of these things has gotten. As with Shin, this is no mere filter; each shot in the film was regraded, with director Takashi Yamazaki striving for "a style that looked like it was taken by masters of monochrome photography." It opens in Japan on January 12; no word yet on whether it will play in any other country.

Godzilla will follow in the steps of pop culture fixtures like The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars with Godzilla: The Official Cookbook by Kayce Baker, due from Titan Books on September 10. (You can tell it's official because he's actually on the cover.) 60 recipes lie within. It's a given that I'm going to buy something Godzilla-related that's this silly; I just have to pick up another cookbook first so it won't be the first one I ever own.

I was surprised to realize that McDonald's has never done anything Godzilla-related; far less prolific fast-food chains have worked with the monster, from White Castle to Carl's Jr. The first salvo in the campaign was pretty underwhelming—BE@ABRICK figures that can only be won via lottery, with an entirely plain Godzilla. That replica MogeGoji suit looked great in the ad, at least. Tokusatsu is being kept alive in the Godzilla franchise through some truly odd means. The follow-up ad/promo was a lot better, but that's a matter for next week's post.

This is at least kaiju-adjacent—James Wan's long-gestating The Call of Cthulhu movie seems to finally be going somewhere, as revealed in roundabout fashion by a Deadline article. I thought the 2005 silent version was just fine, but presumably this will be produced by his company Atomic Monster, which is long overdue for an actual giant monster movie.

[lokiondisneyplus]

How Marvel officially added McDonalds to the MCU

On the very last day of filming on the first season of the Marvel Disney+ TV series Loki, executive producer Kevin Wright sat on the steps of The Citadel at the End of Time with costar Sophia Di Martino (Sylvie), and they started to chat about what might be next for her character. Not in any official script capacity, just as fans of the story they’d just finished filming. 

“This character had been on a decades-long, maybe centuries-long revenge mission, and the classic trope of those stories is that it’s all-consuming and she’s not thinking about what comes next,” says Wright. “Now she has this moment of opportunity, where is she going to go?”

Di Martino thought about it for a moment, and said, “She’d probably be pretty hungry.

There are more than 13,000 McDonald’s across the United States right here in 2023, and untold more across the multiverse. In a new campaign launched this week, the fast-feeder gave Marvel and Loki fans a peek at its own cameo in the series’ upcoming second season, set to launch on October 6.

“As Featured In” is the Golden Arches latest Famous Orders meal campaign and, instead of being tied to a particular artist or character, it celebrates all the instances in TV and movies that McDonald’s has appeared or been mentioned by characters: Friends, The Office, Seinfeld, Space Jam, Coming to America, and many, many more. But at the center of the campaign is Loki, one that hasn’t even happened yet, which is probably appropriate for a show that revolves around the multiverse and many different timelines. 

The meal itself—a choice of a 10-piece Chicken McNuggets, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, or Big Mac, with medium fries, a Loki-branded Sweet ‘N’ Sour Sauce, and a medium soda—is, like the Famous Meals before it, nothing all that special, but that has always been the point. The genius of Famous Orders is that it drives customers to McDonald’s core menu items rather than a limited-time stunt. There is, of course, also a merch collaboration, this time with streetwear darling Palace Skateboards. The packaging features QR codes that customers can scan to get fun Loki content and buy pieces from the Palace collaboration.

Long after his conversation with Di Martino on the Citadel set steps, Wright and his team were developing season two, and they were finding it difficult to pick up a new Sylvie storyline. She had just killed He Who Remains in season one, where does she go? 

“When we stayed in the view of character, this woman who went on the run as a child, had been running through time, a fugitive of time, living in apocalypses, never being able to relax or slow down, the novelty of walking into a 1980s McDonald’s looked appealing,” say Wright. “You play a Little League game and go to McDonald’s. You go to a kid’s birthday party at McDonald’s. Someone like Sylvie would never have experienced that, and would be really taken by that.”

Marvel Studios has been a brand partnerships factory since Iron Man first ate a Whopper in 2008. Typically these things happen when there is a finished script, and producers go through it with the studio’s brand partnerships team to see where opportunities may be. A car chase, you say? What brand of car should we use? Maybe an Audi?

But this latest collaboration happened in reverse. A 1982 McDonald’s was specifically written into the script, so Wright approached Marvel’s partnerships people to talk to the brand about helping them out with the details. “I was worried that McDonald’s would think we wanted to do something ironic or make fun of them,” says Wright. “But we were selling an earnest story, a love letter to nostalgia through a character’s eyes who will see all of the novelty and joy of it.”

He needn’t have worried. “When I pitched it, our internal team said, ‘Uh, you realize we have a partnership with McDonald’s already, right? The fact we’re going to them wanting to do something makes it even better.”

Around that same time mid-last year, McDonald’s marketing execs were on a tour of sorts, meeting with content creators and creative teams at studios like Disney about the brand’s interest in participating in cultural moments beyond the typical product tie-in. That’s when the call from Marvel about Loki came in.

“We tend to embrace things like this,” says McDonald’s global chief marketing officer Morgan Flatley, “which we feel can be an opportunity for us to learn, especially because we felt that between Marvel and Loki, there was a real willingness to take their rabid fandom and mix it with a fan truth around McDonald’s and bring them together.”

The fan truth Flatley refers to is of McDonald’s as a congenial gathering place, a common experience for so many people. “Sylvie’s storyline perfectly aligned with how we think about our brand in terms of providing comfort and familiarity,” says Flatley. Familiarity is the key to the emotion of nostalgia and shelter that Wright was aiming for in the story.

That same familiarity is indicative of a brand so ubiquitous, it’s become a cultural touchpoint. Hence all the McDonald’s references in TV and movies. There’s a reason McDowell’s works as such a big bit in the classic comedy Coming to America. We all get it.

That all sounds great, but many brands get nervous or overprotective when they aren’t in full control of the creative. Not that long ago, McDonald’s was among them. The success of Famous Orders, allowing artists and partners like Cactus Plant Flea Market to play with its brand logos and characters, and the passionate response from fans—along with the sold-out merch and boosted sales—has given Flatley and the brand more confidence than ever in what she calls “sharing the pen.”

“I’ve become a big believer that if we lean into the right kind of creators in the right cultural phenomenon, and loosen some of our control on the brand, magic will happen,” says Flatley. “A few years ago, I don’t know that we would have felt as comfortable handing over key aspects of our brand to be part of a storyline like this, but today we’re really aware of the authenticity of our brand and the role that it can play.”

Wright is very familiar with the pitfalls of ill-conceived brand partnerships, and the impact they can have. “Wayne’s World was making fun of this stuff 30 years ago,” says Wright. “When it’s done poorly, it looks like business not driven by story. I don’t think that was ever a concern for us, mainly because we knew it was being driven by our story, and the more McDonald’s partnered with us, the better we were able to service the story.”

Multiversal marketing? Let’s see McDowell’s try that.

[venusvity]

₊˚ 🌙 ♡𓂋 ☄️ 。ﾟ✷ ⠀  VENUS ATTENDS WATERBOMB TOKYO 2023!

Known as "The Princesses of Waterbomb" everyone was disappointed when VENUS couldn't attend Waterbomb Seoul this year, breaking their four-year tradition of attending the festive. However, VENUS made up for missing Seoul Waterbomb and attended Waterbomb Tokyo causing a big splash as usual!

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫     ( LOOK BOOK ! )    

( LEFT 2 RIGHT ! ) ... AKI, YOONAH, JIAH, CHLOE, AND SENA !

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫     SET LIST !

BLOW A KISS

1ST MENT

I AM THE WITCH AT THE STAKE

2ND MENT

ILLUSIONS

3RD MENT

IM THE BEST

4TH MENT

SUMMER LUV!

.ﾟ۪ ♡ ۫     VIRAL MOMENTS !

too many to keep track of, truly.

everyone looked SO good. the girls were literally glowing and completely in their element. it was clear they were having a great time.

the entire festival was screaming the lyrics to IM THE BEST like everyone was so excited they finally performed it again.

they were screaming for every song this is a great festival setlist esp for constellations.

yoonah had multiple clips of her go viral just for how pretty she looked. mainly during blow a kiss and i am the witch, many people praising her for her visuals and performance.

the tweets got interesting to say the least but the consensus was that yoonah is very hot especially while wet.

aki also went viral for her visuals. a clip of her during one of the ments, pushing her hair back and telling the crowd "be as loud as you fucking can. we came to have some fun!" went viral for obvious reasons. she's hot.

a clip of sena and jiah covering "what a life" by exo-sc went viral as well. the girls talked about how excited they were to see the boys perform later. they bleed cosmic latte.

yoonah couldn't figure out how to get her water gun to work so she called for aki to help her. when aki came over, she took the gun from yoonah, fiddled with it for a second, then sprayed her with water. it was a cute and funny moment that also went viral!

chloe had a clip of her throwing ass towards the crowd then running away giggling go viral for obvious reasons. she's now been added to the list of idols that can throw ass. everyone clap for chole!

not viral per say but it was talked about a lot how close chanyeol and yoonah seemed, chloe and sehun were also seen walking around together at the festival. chloe would later go to post a picture of her and sehun to her story captioning it: "i love my BESTIE sehun! and he loves having me as a BESTIE! 😁"

yoonah would post a video of her and chanyeol in his car while in the Mcdonalds drive through with the caption "😚" while both of them sip on their drinks. yoonah looking cute and chanyeol looking like he has no idea what's going on as usual.

the only song they did the full choreography for was summer luv just because they had to. the choreo is the most iconic part! but other than that, they were mainly having fun with the crowd, with each other, and just overall having a good time!