I am from an extremely Irish family, and while we are of course preparing the typical corned beef and cabbage tonight, I am just finishing off a shamrock shake!
Every year I wait in eager anticipation for the return of my number one favorite treat. Now they come topped off with whipped cream and a cherry (hardly necessary but nice for you gourmets). If you've never experienced the delight of these delish minty milkshakes, I would 100% encourage you to pick on up, just for St. Patty's day! These green shakes have been around for a over 40 years, and I thought this brief history of shamrock shakes was pretty neat.
These McDonald's commercials are also pretty interesting...
They are all from the 1980's and all have a pretty different approach, it's interesting to see the difference in these commercials from the McDonald's commercials we see today advertising fancy almost "designer" lattes and frappucinos complete with whipped cream. (Notice any tokenism or advertising techniques?)
*I'll let y'all know if they have shamrock shakes in Ireland in a couple months.
Hey Carolyn, did you notice any tokenism in these commercials, because I did! In the first commercial of your last clip, the commercial focuses on the life of an entirely white family, until the end where you see an african-american child with a baseball cap and glove. Why do you think the producers of the commercial decided to put him in the commercial?
ReplyDeleteGOOD CATCH DELVA! I agree with him completely.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn, what a fun post! I am Irish too (if the Eagen didn't give it away haha). It is always interesting to have some historical context with modern popular products. Liking your idea to consumerism, I do wonder how popular this product is? Is it only on sale during the month of march? I know it is extremely loved by many...then why don't they have it available longer?
Also, AWESOME IDEA TO DISPLAY THOSE VIDEOS! How do you do that?
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy Shamrock Shakes.
ReplyDeleteTo quote an Irish saying, by an Irish man:
"The only way we know it's St. Patrick's Day in Ireland is by the tourists wearing green."
Thanks for the comments guys! I just returned from a 10 day trip in Ireland and found out that they did have Shamrock Shakes and that they celebrate St. Patrick's Day as a religious holiday (St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland). However, in cities, schools, tourist towns etc. celebrate the holiday lavishly and commercially like we do in the US (but magnified).
ReplyDelete