By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
After the success of E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Hollywood scrambled to duplicate its success and filled the 80s with family-friendly alien adventures, some more successful than others, but none as infamous as the disastrous Mac and Me. Not only was the plot a direct rip-off of the Steven Spielberg classic, but the product placement was so obnoxious and in your face that an entire scene in a McDonald’s includes Ronald McDonald.
The McDonalds scene isn’t the worst product placement in the movie. Considered one of the worst movies of all time, it’s impossible to sit and enjoy Mac and Me without doing so ironically.
A Sci-Fi Knockoff
The plot of Mac and Me sounds like someone took the novelization of E.T. and changed a few words, thinking no one would notice. Mac, which stands for Mysterious Alien Creature and only coincidentally reminds you of the McDonald’s Big Mac, arrives in Los Angeles, befriends a young kid, is hunted by the FBI, and ends up using his alien abilities to perform a healing miracle. What makes it different is that Mac’s family is on Earth with him and, of course, the egregious product placement.
E.T. the Extraterrestrial made Reese’s Pieces famous, and every other company in the country wanted the same sort of boost for their brands, which is why McDonald’s is featured so prominently, including a five-minute dance sequence, that got Ronald McDonald nominated for a Razzie. The worst product placement, though, isn’t the fast food, but Coca-Cola. When Mac’s family is finally found, they are suffering from dehydration and are revived through the cool, crisp, refreshing flavor of Coke.
While promoting his documentary Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Morgan Spurlock referred to Mac and Me as the “worst thing you’ll ever in your life, and it was paid for by my good friends at McDonald’s” in an interview with Yahoo! Movies. At the time, critics, including Gene Siskel, called out the film for the product placement and also for being a blatant rip-off, which helps explain the impressive Rotten Tomatoes score of zero percent fresh.
Paul Rudd’s Favorite Movie
To a generation, however, Mac and Me are more famous for the clip of a kid in a wheelchair going downhill and falling into the water, thanks to Paul Rudd. Every time Rudd is interviewed by Conan O’Brien, including on a podcast, he shows the same clip every single time.
What most people don’t know, or they forgot as their brains are trying to protect them from remembering the movie, is that the kid, Eric, is killed by a stray bullet. Even in the 80s, a decade of excess and pushing the envelope, showing a kid being shot in a family movie was too much, so the moment was cut out, and instead, he simply died off-screen.
Don’t worry, though; he gets better.
Mac and Me now stands the test of time as an argument that not every director is a visionary, not every film is a work of art. Some, though the argument could be made that this applies to most movies, are completely soulless cash grabs to make money.
Product placement is still going on today, but one of the worst I’ve ever seen involves McDonald’s rival, Burger King, which in Men in Black II has a working restaurant inside of the organization’s super-secret headquarters. At least when Vin Diesel is talking about family while holding a Corona, or the Allspark in Transformers turns an Xbox into a killing machine, they have plot relevance… sort of.
If you’ve never seen Mac and Me and want to either laugh with or punish your friends, you can stream it for free on Tubi, Pluto TV, and Amazon Freevee.