The LA Times editorializes today about the silliness of recent efforts to force dictionaries to remove entries that corporations deem offensive — most recently by McDonald’s, which bristled at the Oxford English Dictionary‘s definition of McJob:
The dictionary currently defines the popular term as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector.” David Fairhurst, “chief people officer” for McDonald’s in Northern Europe, called for a new definition to “reflect a job that is stimulating, rewarding and offers genuine opportunities for career progression and skills that last a lifetime.”
Presumably, Fairhurst is semi-joking. Unless he’s some kind of Orwellian villain, he can’t possibly believe he can, by decree, get people to hear “McJob” and think “awesome gig!”
If McDonald’s really wants to change the public perception of employment in its restaurants, perhaps it could begin with improving the conditions of employment in its restaurants. This may yield only limited improvement, since fast-food production will never come with the benefits of, say, software development for Google, but a PR campaign and some strongly worded letters to dictionary editors certainly won’t suffice.