In an e-mail Thursday evening, McDonald's spokeswoman Lisa Howard dropped a bombshell about what we assumed would be a momentous ad campaign spotlighting McDonald's 50th anniversary, which officially is Friday.  

"There is no 'commercial' campaign associated with the 50th anniversary," was the brief, blunt answer.

It's a shameful development, to say the least. Because McDonald's 50th birthday represents a golden opportunity -- from an advertising perspective -- to acknowledge the chain's important place in the fast food arena, while celebrating the chain's long and storied heritage.

Though explanations for the decision not to run a 50th anniversary ad campaign have been hard to come by from McDonald's corporate brass, at least a couple of reasons seem obvious.

Several months ago, McDonald's global chief marketing officer Larry Light said he was substantially reducing the chain's investment in traditional television advertising, so the decision to dispense with a 50th anniversary tribute simply may be one cut Light opted to make as he seeks to put more money into non-traditional marketing efforts.

Perhaps more to the point, however, Light and the chain's principal roster ad agencies, DDB/ Chicago and Leo Burnett, may have been struggling to find a way to develop a 50th anniversary tribute within the parameters of the funky "I'm Lovin' It" concept. We could sure understand why that would prove quite a challenge, as the whole campaign to reposition McDonald's as a youthful, hip food outlet seems to have run out of steam in recent months.

When McDonald's ads do show up on television and in other formats nowadays, they try too hard to come off as "cool" without conveying any clear, compelling message about the McDonald's experience. For our money, archrival Burger King and its principal ad agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, are doing much more interesting, catchy, intelligent, message-focused television work at the moment.

Still, there is no denying that through the decades McDonald's advertising, some of it gloriously memorable, has played a major role in establishing the burger chain as the iconic behemoth it is today. But we'll just have to make our peace with the fact no 50th anniversary campaign will honor and add to that great ad work.

Instead, McDonald's spokeswoman Howard, in her brief e-mail, said, "we are focused on our employees around the world for the 50th, celebrating opportunity together."

Whatever that means, it looks as if McDonald's 50th birthday is going to be one huge missed advertising opportunity for the company.  
 
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