Russia has apparently proposed a local replacement for fast food giants McDonald's, following the chain's withdrawal from the country as a result of its invasion into Ukraine – however, the suggested logo for the brand looks somewhat familiar.
Last week, Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, had said Russian-branded restaurants should take over McDonald’s locations.
“They announced they are closing" he said, according to the Washington Post. "Well, okay, close. But tomorrow in those locations we should have not McDonald’s, but Uncle Vanya’s.
“Jobs must be preserved and prices reduced.”
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Uncle Vanya is the name of an 1898 Chekhov play, but the subsequent logo seemingly filed by the modern day Uncle Vanya bears a slightly more Golden Arches-based influence.
That's right, it appears that the suggested emblem for the potential new fast food joint is just the McDonald's 'M' tipped sidewise with a line drawn on to make it look like a B instead. Even the colours are exactly the same.
Understandably this has caused some mirth online. One user shared a picture of the logo on their Twitter account, saying: “The Russian fast-food chain that the Russian parliament’s speaker has proposed to replace @McDonalds has filed for this trademark. Not kidding.”
Another commented on the logo’s graphic design qualities, tweeting: “They literally just slapped the McDonald’s logo onto a yellow rectangle, they have to be trolling, right?”
Another commented: “Could they not even find a graphic designer to at least try and recreate it?
“You can see they downloaded it from online and added the additional pieces.”
A fourth user thought it was doomed to fail, with the Russian population never likely to accept McDonald's was gone. They wrote: “The Russian population will never buy this.
“Everyone knows, once you’ve had Mac, you can’t go back.”
It's a ridiculous logo for the proposed new venture and one that, you suspect, will have the copyright lawyers on them quicker than you can order a Big...Van?
McDonald's is among a slew of western companies who have ceased trading in Russia as a result of the war with Ukraine. Others to have pulled out of the country include Apple, Amazon and Starbucks. McDonald's had 850 sites in Russia all of which have now temporarily suspended their operations.
LADbible has reached out to McDonald's for comment.
Simon Catling