Golden Artches

Did they go on Etsy? Did they scour the web? Did they commission it?

Tuesday, December 10th, 2024

I received quite a few emails after last week’s piece about hotel art, and several including delightful stories from fellow hotel art appreciators. I thought I’d share one such story today, courtesy of reader Chris S., who writes:

After the holidays last year, my family made a last minute booking outside of Chicago. Nice hotel with walking trails, a big pool, etc. Spa-like.

Walking through the halls one day, my wife noticed something about the art.

Have a look yourself, and see what you notice:

A colored pencil sketch of a building, where a McDonald’s sign happens to be visible[Photo credit: Chris S.]

A painting of a mid-century modern building, which happens to be a McDonald’s[Photo credit: Chris S.]

A golf hole near the ocean, with a man about to pull the pin for a fellow golfer. The pin puller happens to be Ronald McDonald.[Photo credit: Chris S.]

A colored pencil or chalk sketch of a building, which happens to be a McDonald’s[Photo credit: Chris S.]

Did you spot it? Yes, every piece has some sort of link to McDonald’s. Back to Chris:

Turns out this is a hotel next to Hamburger University in Oak Brook, IL, so they get a lot of folks staying there from the company.

I presume that’s what the hotel told Chris and his wife, after they inquired about the artwork. Still, that’s really only a surface answer to the question of “Why is all of the art here McDonald’s-themed?”. I have so many more questions! Did this hotel (the Hyatt Lodge, it seems), of their own volition, choose to match their decor to their largest client? I want to know the genesis of this idea, to read the meeting notes where it was presented, to determine how they sourced these pieces.1

Regardless of how it all happened, the idea of non-McDonald’s-related guests slowly discerning the hotel’s weird artwork theme tickles me absolutely pink.2 However, while researching this piece, I learned that Hamburger University has actually moved. The former campus is now owned by Ace Hardware, which leaves me wondering if the hotel will soon be decked out with paintings of wheelbarrows and crescent wrenches.

Time will tell. For now, I leave you with this zoomed-in look at Ronald McDonald golfing:

Ronald McDonald, pulling the pin at hole 7

His clown pants double as goofy golf pants perfectly.

Footnotes:

  1. Speaking of McDonald’s-related artwork, if you haven’t seen Cabel Sasser’s 2024 XOXO talk, I can’t recommend strongly enough that you give it 19 of your minutes. You won’t regret it, particularly when you see the end. ↩︎

  2. As pink as that slime that McDonald’s assures you McNuggets are not actually made from. ↩︎