A new commercial released by McDonald’s Taiwan showing a person lashing out at a doctor and later apologizing with a cup of coffee has triggered an uproar from medical practitioners, prompting McDonald’s to withdraw the commercial.
The commercial depicted a larger man with tattoos using his smartphone to record his wife lying on a hospital bed and him yelling at a young doctor: “Do you really know how to deal with the situation? If you don’t, then get your superintendent here” and “don’t you know how to give an injection to induce labor?” as his wife is about to give birth.
Later in the commercial, the man’s friend reminds him to apologize to the doctor, so he buys a cup of McDonald’s coffee, writes sorry on the cup and gives it to the doctor, as his friend tells the doctor: “You know, he is a new father. Sorry.”
Liu Yu-chih (劉育志), a surgeon and a writer of medical columns, wrote on his blog yesterday: “This is a lousy commercial, because verbal violence is violence, and it is the most common type of violence seen in medical facilities, and many medical practitioners face it every year.”
“This commercial was trying to tell people: ‘You can yell at people if you want, just apologize afterward,’ but this is wrong,” Liu said.
“Being anxious does not excuse any violence, and apologizing afterward cannot make up for the harm done … and people who use violence should be brought to account legally, not by only a word of ‘sorry’ or a cup of coffee,” Liu said.
The Taiwan Medical Association released a statement that urged McDonald’s Taiwan to make an official apology.
“The commercial was the wrong portrayal of a doctor-patient relationship,” it wrote, adding that violence against medical practitioners — whether physical or verbal — should not be tolerated, and violates the Medical Care Act (醫療法).
The statement reads that according to regulations for maintaining privacy at medical facilities, doctors and patients must gain consent from the other side before recording voices or images.
It also said that apologizing after abusing a doctor is definitely inadequate, because being nervous or anxious does not give one the right to lash out at or use violence against medical practitioners.
The Taiwan Medical Alliance for Labor Justice and Patient Safety also criticized the commercial on Facebook.
McDonald’s Taiwan deleted the commercial from the Internet, and responded that the commercial was its fourth short movie-like commercial in its “allow communications to become heartwarming” series for its coffee products, and its intention was to remind people that interpersonal communications are important between family members and people who help us.
“Considering that many medical practitioners are concerned or hold different opinions on the commercial since it was released on our official channel, we respect and thank all the different opinions, and to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding — which is opposite of our intention of encouraging dialogue — we have deleted the commercial,” it said.
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