McDonald's becomes "my burger" in Russia. Logo/name unveiled. (UPDATE)

So here you go: McDonald's no more.

After opening to exceptional fanfare in 1990 in Russia, McDonald's basically scaled back its operations (but could not completely eradicate them as several branches are sublet to other companies). But now that the fast food giant is out of the country what's with the transition time, it has been replaced by "My Burger" - which apparently is a "transitory name" (good luck with that, usually transitory things are here to stay, look at any detour on a Lebanese highway supposed to be "temporary" - it has been so for around 3 decades). In an update to the post, apparently the name is now "Vkusno i Tochka" which means, "tasty and that's it" with a selling line that goes "the name changes, the love stays" in an apparent riff of McDonald's "I'm lovin' it".

So the logo is supposed to symbolize 2 fries and a burger in the shape of the letter "m". Ok reading the letter in question could be stretching it, and of course the logo is an interpretation of other things as well such as a lopsided wifi signal, or the Marriot Hotel logo which also suspended operations in Russia  (see here) or as Botrus Hajj said (whom you met here) "like a footballer kicking a ball". My friend back from university Ossama Dimassi pointed out the analogy with the Adidas logo and he was right as well.

So here we are, the opening of McDonald's on Pushkin square in Moscow was such a seismic event, the opening of My Burger less so.

So, how is social media helping Ukraine?

I know writing this post is counter-intuitive for someone who has the oldest still running blog in Lebanon. But hang in there with me. Yes, I realize that getting the Ukrainian stories across via the media is very important and I am all for it. I keep refreshing The Guardian page umpteen times a day to get new info. And yes, I love that story about the "Snake Island" who told the Russians to go "f*ck themselves" or the man who stood in front of a tank a la Tiananmen square.

But on the flip side, Twitter is just full of hashtags about the crisis, and every other post on Linkedin (literally every other post) is about Urkaine, thankfully I am shielded from what is going on on Facebook as I have zero friends there but can only imagine the calamity, oh and Instagram has stories upon stories (because apparently it is now more fashionable to post stories) about the country. 

My question is: How will this be more successful than the #bringbackourgirls just go name one movement which started and ended online with zero action on the ground. I know not. This blogpost is just the utmost of hypocrisy: Here I am writing about it with zero effect. But at least I recognize that.

And it saddens me we are confusing posting online with actually doing something meaningful on the ground even if - I am the first to admit it - there is little to nothing I can do.

"Liking isn't helping" said that wonderful Crisis Relief Singapore ad. Isn't it time we admit it?