Most likely it was something that someone put together just to have a laugh, and someone else took it seriously. it's not the first time; Something Awful's photoshop contests have had their entries disseminated as "real" far and wide.

It was trending on FB, and when I went to the site, an ad box was covering up the date info.

has really put the nonsensical "chain-letter"-forwarding format on steroids. Sigh. And the irony is that if you go into any urban or even rim-suburb Mickey D's, the staff are almost all, if not all-Black... and many of those franchises are also Black-owned.

I haven't eaten at McD's since the mid-1970s, but my reason to "boycott" the Golden Arches can be found in this statement from the article:

This is hardly the only recent barrage of negative publicity for the burger behemoth--some of it more justified. McDonalds CEO Jim Skinner recently was forced to defend the company's renewed use of the Ronald McDonald mascot to appeal to children, after critics said the restaurant's fat-laden burgers and fries endanger kids' health.

I began to notice McD's advertising never really sold a product, but a lifestyle. The ads began with a skit, usually involving some dilemma with the HamBurglar or Mayor McCheese or some other "regular" and, of course, Ronald. There were kids involved and they all would up at a McDonald's as if the angst of the moment was resolved by a trip to the arches. If I recall correctly, sometimes parents were involved.

But I thought "This is pure propaganda!" (yeah, I know--what's Madison Avenue?): they were selling a fantasy, not a consumer product. Later, I discovered McD's food was crap.

This faux McD's sign, though, is definitely beyond the pale...