A rather mixed McMessage...

McDonalds (the hamburger people, though you'd be hard put to tell until the end) are running a TV ad at the minute showing little kids having a grand old time on a farm in the sunny countryside. It's accompanied by that jolly old song "We're busy doing nothing" from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Until the final few seconds, there isn't an adult in sight, so the kids are at liberty to romp around unsupervised and wreck the joint enjoy themselves.

It reminded me of an entirely different ad I saw when I was about 12 (not the infamous Public Information Film Apaches, BTW - I'm too old for that one.) "Farms aren't playgrounds," was the message, and long, low-angled black-and-white shots of the hooks and blades of massive farm equipment hinted at how easily they could rip and smash you all over or deep into the topsoil of the neighbouring half-acre.

I had nightmares for ages; not because it was especially graphic, but because at that time the family took occasional weekend breaks on my Uncle Matt's farm outside Lurgan. After seeing the ad, I knew what was waiting in the shadows of the barn, just for me...

So I reworked the lyrics a bit.

We're busy doing nothing,
Playing around the farm,
Quite unaware these machines can do us harm.
We're pulling all the levers
On the harvester in the shed,
Where Mum and Dad can't see us, so...
We're likely to end up dead!

If Emergency Services can't find all the bits after a trip through the muck-spreader, at least there's some corner of a rural field that is forever little Tommy, or Helen, or Sam, or Babs, or... Yeah. Very comforting.

Have fun down on the farm - and enjoy your Big Mac sensibly.