When you do ads that make fun of ads, try not to make fun of mental illness

Via AdFreak

There's nothing advertising creatives love better than to go meta, and make fun of ad cliches for unrelated products, organizations or causes.

That was, presumably, this thinking behind the McDonald's ad (above) which apparently ran on Boston transit properties.

According to AdFreak, Arnold, Boston, created the ad. They were sent this stament from McDonald's

"Arnold apologizes for its mistake to McDonald's and to anyone who was offended by the ad. McDonald's did not approve the ad, and its release was our unintended error. We've addressed the issue and have improved our approval process to ensure this does not happen in the future."

Here are the other two ads, mocking adult education and business ad clichés:

Via Facebook

Via Facebook

I'd really love to know what kind of "unintended error" resulted in these ads being published and posted, without client approval, in a public place. Not to mention the fact that they followed the art direction of crappy ads so closely that they make the McDonald's brand look sloppy and amateurish.

After the JWT India/Ford scandal I am beginning to seriously wonder what absurd amount of "going rogue" with a brand it actually takes for an agency to get fired.