thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/...nalds/

McDonald’s has opened a campaign in Britain to pressure the Oxford English Dictionary to redefine “McJobs” in a more positive light.

The currently published definition — “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector” — is “out of date, out of touch with reality and most importantly, it is insulting to those talented, committed, hard-working people who serve the public every day,” a company executive, David Fairhurst, was quoted in The Financial Times as saying. (His title at the company, evidently, is “chief people officer,” which hasn’t made it into the O.E.D. yet.)

McDonalds tried this kind of campaign once before, against Merriam Webster in 2003, without success.

The word itself can be traced all the way back to a 1986 article in the Washington Post, and reached an even wider audience through Douglas Coupland’s 1991 novel “Generation X.”

The Telegraph discerned another motive besides definitional accuracy in “linking indignation with brand promotion.” The campaign shapes up as an “opportunity to win public sympathy and support, and show they are good employers at the same time,” a marketing expert said.

A recent salvo in the campaign, in fact, adds yet another a new word to the McLexicon: “McProspects – over half of our executive team started in our restaurants. Not bad for a McJob.”

Stephen Smoliar of The Rehearsal Studio pointed out that the strategy targeting the dictionary folks may be exactly backwards:

People do not take the O.E.D. definition for “McJob” as the meaning of the word because the O.E.D. has sanctioned it; the O.E.D. published the definition because that is consistent with how people are using the word. If McDonald’s wants that definition changed, they should be paying closer attention to what the English-speaking public thinks about them.

That may be why the company has also started a campaign aimed at public opinion, including a petition that is being circulated in 40 British cities for signatures, the Telegraph reported. It also commissioned a survey of 1,000 people, two-thirds of whom said they agreed that the definition was “outdated.” Slightly fewer people said that they would be insulted if the word was applied to them.

A London Times writer joked that the company may actually end up adding McWords to the dictionary like “McPedant, McKilljoy and McSense-of-humour-failure.”

All in good fun, but most news articles on the subject have thankfully steered clear of such McWordplay, which is better suited for the comments of blog posts such as this one. Ladies and gentlemen, step up to the plate, point to the bleachers like Babe Ruth, and hit this McMeatball out of the park.