These Are The Sexual Roots Of McDonald’s Iconic Arches

We are bombarded with branding every day. Logos are everywhere, and often we see them so frequently that's it's hard to see the REAL messaging behind them. Who didn't have a jaw-dropping duh moment upon discovering that hidden arrow in the FedEx logo? Genius, amirite? The meaning behind the McDonald's logo is a bit less subtle. Long ago, in an era that precedes our free-the-nipple thinking, side-boob bearing, and progressive under-boob revealing society, the fetishization of women's breasts was a more covert operation. So much so that a group of ad men subliminally decided to use them as inspiration for what we now know as the "double arches," which are a pair of mammary glands. Once you see it, it's difficult to unsee. While this news isn't new, it's begun trending thanks to a recent story about the fast-food chain on FoodBeast. Writer Isai Rocha refers to the book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser, who tells the story of America's most popular food chain. In a nutshell, McDonald's wanted to change its logo and called in design consultant Louis Cheskin.
Cheskin convinced the company that customers respond to the curved shapes, reminiscent of a woman's body. He noted it "had Freudian applications to the subconscious mind of the consumer." People like breasts. There you have it, marketing at its finest.