Plain Folks
The "Despicable Me" McDonalds commercial is a great example of plain folk, which is a propaganda technique used when putting a famous person or character as a common man. The Minions from the movie Despicable Me come out and are put as common people that order the McDonald’s Happy meal and are entertained being in McDonalds. They drink milk, play with food, and run around McDonalds just like young children. For example, they drink the McDonalds milk, blow and pop bubbles, order and they are served the McDonald’s Happy Meal. There is a scene where the McDonald’s Happy Meal almost falls off the tray, but the Minions try their best to not spill the meal and save it. This can show customers that even Minions love their Happy Meal. Emotional appeal can be shown in the advertisement because the Minions have big smiles on their face playing around, laughing, eating and enjoying being in McDonalds. Minions are also a popular character among all people of all ages. This can make the customers associate the product with the Minions, so they would want to buy the food. For the reasons mentioned above, this video uses plain folk as one of its main techniques for enhancing the commercial.