In March 2021, an advertisement appeared that was linked to an article titled 28 Hidden Images in Famous Business Logos (That You Never Noticed). The image, shown below, showed the McDonald’s Golden Arches logo with the caption It’s not just an “M.”
The linked article claimed that, while designing their famous logo, McDonald’s consulted a psychologist named Louis Cheskin, who advised them that customers would unconsciously associate the arches with a “pair of nourishing breasts.” Is this the reason they chose the logo? Do the Golden Arches symbolize a mother’s breasts?
Ahh, Golden Arches! You probably realized that the “M” design stands for “McDonald’s.” However, you probably didn’t know that the successful food chain’s marketing team consulted a psychologist, Louis Cheskin, while creating their famed logo. Cheskin suggested that customers would unconsciously associate the arches with a “pair of nourishing breasts.” Talk about subliminal symbolism.
According to the Snopes article on the subject, this is true. While Snopes points out that it is misleading to suggest that McDonald’s consulted Cheskin while designing the logo, it is still true to say that the logo is meant to symbolize a mother’s breasts, which, according to Snopes, is “the main part of the claim.”
Further analyses of the history of the logo reveal that while, as he claims, Cheskin may have advised McDonald’s and suggested that customers would associate the logo with a mother’s nourishing breasts, it is unclear how much this advice influenced the company.
More importantly, the original design of the logo had nothing to do with breasts. The McDonald’s arches were, from the beginning, simply arches.
While the article we are discussing says that Cheskin consulted with McDonald’s and provided his decidedly pop psychology advice, the ‘main claim’ in the article is hidden.
That is, by claiming that Cheskin was consulted during the design of the logo, the article implies that the nourishing breasts idea was important in the original design and decision to use the logo. It was not.
Therefore, the claim in the article is not true. There simply is no evidence that the arches are ‘more than just an M.’ And, in fact, the original McDonald’s were separated so that they did not look like an M.
The arches began in 1952 when the McDonald’s brothers, Richard and Maurice, were designing a new type of building for the hamburger restaurant they wanted to open in San Bernadino, California. This was not the first restaurant that the brothers had opened.
Their first was a barbecue drive-in that began next to the Monrovia Airport in 1937 but was moved to San Bernadino in 1940.
After realizing that most of their sales were in hamburgers, they decided to specialize and change the barbecue restaurant to a walk-up hamburger concept. They closed the shop for a while to work on a new design.
They interviewed several architects and eventually chose Stanley Clark Meston who was fine with incorporating the idea of the arches.
The original design had two stylized semi-circle arches rising above the rear of the building, like the building in Downey, California shown below.
The restaurant was a huge success thanks to its eye-catching design, McDonald’s innovative assembly line procedures, and simple menu. The brothers soon began to franchise the concept, requiring franchisees to use the arch design also.
Photo by Bryan Hong
After Ray Krok became involved in 1962 arches were incorporated into the McDonald’s logo, and then in 1968, the current golden arches logo was introduced, resembling an M for McDonald’s. The original design was simply arches and the arches were brought together to become an M.
The Arches are Just Arches But Also an M
While it does seem to be true that the company consulted Louis Cheskin during the transition period when they were considering dropping the arches, it is simply not true that this means that the arches were meant to symbolize a mother’s breast.
While this may or may not have been a part of the decision, it would not have been more important than the fact that the arches logo resembled an M for McDonald’s and that the arches themselves were part of the original restaurant design.
In other words, the arches are not just an M, they are also arches. Some, however, may see them as giant curved McDonald’s french fries.
h/t Snopes
