This recruitment video for McDonald’s is simply amazing. It is a full-on miniature drama tracing the arc of a young woman who starts at the bottom at McDonald’s, overcoming the snark and condescension of her friends and her mother, and rises to become a floor manager who trains other new employees, joining part of a community of other happy workers. All who doubted her are forced to eat their words. The production is slick, with emotive cinematography and lots of rising crane shots. It should get the Oscar for best internal corporate propaganda.

Here is a place where your manager will show you what to do and how to succeed. Simple mistakes are dismissed with a smile. You will learn to be competent, and then the manager will be cool by letting you swap shifts so you can go see Green Day! You will increase in your skills and make small differences in the lives of the diners you serve by providing thoughtful customer service. There are even ways to volunteer to clean up at the local park with your fellow shift workers for no pay simply because it makes you feel good and you can all smile with each other!

The part where the new employee looks over the shoulder of someone reading the newspaper and seeing a headline for “McDonald’s Grilled Over Obesity” and shakes her head is a nice touch. It’s followed by a shot of a bunch of people eating salad at McDonalds.

It’s very smart. They know exactly what the popular objections among consumers and in the media are to working at McDonald’s and they deftly deflect each one. I found myself getting swept up in the universally appealing simple story with its can-do heroine overcoming adversity. If I was young, impressionable, broke and lonely, this could very easily draw me in.

The video seems to be for British Mickey D’s workers, which is probably why we haven’t seen it before despite it being a few years old. I can only imagine what they’re getting up to nowadays

Reader Matt was inspired to send this one in after seeing the “Don’t Join A Union” video Target makes new employees watch that we posted.

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