On September 15, 2007 Ronald McDonald, who had fallen in love with the food of New York and become frustrated with the corporate agenda of McDonald’s, stepped into action closing every McDonald’s store in Manhattan. The closure, while temporary, affected all stores and was accomplished using simple signs and tape.
Later that day, L.M. Bogad (of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army and author) appeared as Ronald McDonald giving a press conference. Also involved was writer/performer Kevin Crook as a McDonald’s corporate representative who somehow showed me up as a straight man. See the video:
download quicktime file or YouTube, or Vimeo
Photos: Ronald’s Crisis on flickr.
Script: download draft script as a text file.
Video With Commentary
Response
- One participant was chased down the street by a McDonalds manager.
- Toward the end of the day it seemed managers had been tipped off and were waiting for the signs.
- Writing about the project from Sarah Nelson Wright.
Credits
Ronald’s Crisis was a direct collaboration with L.M. Bogad and Kevin Crook as co-writers and performers. The project involved the contributions of nearly 30 people, especially Jeff Crouse, and Brian Smeets. The kernel of the idea was developed at Eyebeam in discussions with Julia Schwadron, Mouna Andraos, and James Powderly among others.
UPDATE: Ronald’s Crisis was used as a template for the recent Rainforest Action Network protest in their campaign against Bank of America. See the slideshow here.
