Every New Year’s Eve in Taiwan, the staff at local McDonald’s restaurants cosplay. This year, some of the threads didn’t exactly go over well. At all.
In the past, staff have dressed up as Dragon Ball characters, maids, and even Chucky from Child’s Play. McDonald’s employees don’t typically dress like this, and the cosplay is part of a special year-end campaign.
[Photo: McDonald’s Taiwan]
Sure, some branches had McDonald’s-themed cosplay or cute Minions cosplay, but a Pingtung branch, for example, had zombie-nurse cosplay.
According to Next Mag, there were complaints about this cosplay, namely that the bloodied nurses undermined the image of health care professionals, and that the fake blood made the food appear unsafe.
[Photo via Next Mag]
According to ETToday, another branch in Kaohsiung also had zombie employees—but no nurses. There doesn’t appear to have been complaints against this branch’s cosplay, however.
[Photo: ETToday]
The Taiwanese military had to call out one branch in Tainan. At the restaurant, the staff wore military uniforms. Were the armed forces lovin’ it? Not exactly.
[Photo: China Times]
According to LiveDoor and ETToday, the country’s Defense Ministry is thinking of taking legal action for not only harming the armed forces’ reputation—as their function is to protect and not serve fast food—but also for breaking the law.
Legally, non-military civilians must get permission before wearing military uniforms. Failing to do so can result in fines up to TWD$15,000 (US$450). Since the McDonald’s staff isn’t in the military, they could be liable for the infraction.
The incident has made national news in Taiwan. If the goal was publicity, then mission accomplished. Doubt the idea was to tick off the military in the process.
Top image: ETToday
To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter@Brian_Ashcraft.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond.