McLetters
This gained the biggest reaction to one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever done in a public space. There’s no way I would have ever included this on my website if it hadn’t got so out of hand online, but here it is anyway.
Why
For quite a while, I’d been aware that the seating area signs for McDonald’s at the White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds had been missing the counter (enclosed shapes in characters) from the “D”. It had been a very mild visual irritation, and because it was just a simple shape and at chest height, I decided to do something about it.
The first step was to get a photo for scale, and I had a wallet tool to help with that. Anything would have been suitable though.
I also soon learned that there was an identical graphic of the same type a few metres away that was missing the middle bit of the “o”.
As I was now aware of two faults, and a few people were making kinds of pilgrimages to the site to have their photo taken with a sign that was in disrepair again, and the one that I’d not even known about. I had to get my act together and sort them both out.
Where
Food Court of the White Rose Shopping Centre, Leeds, UK.
Approximate “What3words” location of actual signage:
Production
The first fix was just a bit of Foamex plastic. It wasn’t great because cutting through 5mm thick plastic with a snap-off blade wasn’t very easy or precise.
The second fix was 3D printed from white PLA Filament. I’d taken the more complex route of looking extensively and unnecessarily into the McD’s branding guidelines. From there I got the appropriate graphic and went into the 3D modelling application Fusion 360. I modelled the new counters into two parts per letter that shell together to conceal screws. I sliced them in an application called Cura. I then 3D printed them.
There are many better and even simpler ways this could have been done, but this was just my solution.
Execution
The first fix was just a quick pause to position and stick on the inner “D” with double-sided tape on a quiet Wednesday evening.
For the second fix, I made a trip to the shopping centre again. It was so busy on the Sunday afternoon and I didn’t want people thinking I was vandalising the place. As the WRC were now aware of me (and happy with what I’d done) this time I went to the centre management. They were pleased to see me and allowed me to have a security guard with me to lend me some credibility as I replaced both the inner “D” and “o”.
The base plates were screwed on after positioning again with tape and the face-plates have been glued on. But even if the face is removed, the base-plates have been designed to maintain the same footprint of the full counter shapes.
White Rose Shopping Centre response
The management of the White Rose Centre, where I did my guerrilla repair work, had caught on to the increasing popularity of my original post that was getting global reach and jokingly made me “Employee of the Month”.
And to be clear, I have no affiliation with, and have never worked for the White Rose Shopping Centre. Which made it very funny. Kudos to the WRC.
Unnecessary Certificate Reproduction
I liked the certificate thing and although I had way many more things to be doing, I decided to recreate it.
I undistorted the photo, copied and reproduced the rose logo. I researched the fonts to get them right. I think they’re “Avant Garde” and “Merrant”.
Some people were confused by this, though, and just thought I’d created it and elected myself employee of the month.
Even by my standards, re-making this was distinctly pointless and I have no intention of printing it.
Facebook and Media blow-up
The first post about this was on my own page, where I have a small number of friends who see my mostly silly or creative activities. But just before going to the cinema that week, I submitted it to the DMC (Dull Men’s Club) on Facebook as a silly throwaway post that I didn’t even think would be accepted. Then it suddenly blew up and went viral across the world. It didn’t take long for me to discover that the McDonald’s franchise didn’t know the piece had been missing, and indeed, they really didn’t care about anything I’d done (via the manager confirming this to a friends who’d tagged them). The McDonald’s corporation probably doesn’t care either as it has nothing to do with them. The sign belongs to the White Rose Centre, not even the franchise of McDonald’s that it’s for.
The original Facebook post had over 57k reactions and many thousands of comments. The follow up has over 27k. These posts were also being shared in other places that were less easy to keep track of. I think I’d been able to read most of the DMC comments, and also replied to as many as I could.
It didn’t take long before journalists and other types of media people were contacting me about this ludicrous little task. With the Ukrainian war in its third year, Turkish civil unrest and the batshit-crazy American President dominating the news, I was more than willing to let some silliness creep into the local news cycle.
Apart from journalists speaking with me, I was also contacted by a radio producer who was interested in me appearing on Comedian Jon Richardson’s show. I really like Jon Richardson so I was more than happy to agree. The company I work for wouldn’t just simply let me have a bit of time to do this, so I had to book half a day off to accommodate it. I recorded a segment where Jon tries to talk people down from their moment of (presumed) smugness, but in my case he was on board so let me have it.
BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0kg0e61l51o
UPI (whatever that is)
https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2025/03/26/McDonalds-sign-viral-Leeds-England-Dull-Mens-Group/5161743008616
Yorkshire Evening Post
https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/people/leeds-man-goes-viral-white-rose-mcdonalds-sign-5049285
Yorkshire Post (incomplete half-arsed article, but it was the first)
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/people/dull-mens-club-yorkshire-man-goes-viral-on-facebook-after-fixing-mcdonalds-sign-at-white-rose-shopping-centre-5042422
Absolute Radio
“The Jon Richardson Show” on 29 March 2025
AUDIO FILE (7m 45s): https://stevenlovell.org/wp-content/uploads/Absolute-Clip-2-24k.mp3
At the end they’re talking about my pub maps, but I missed the start of that short bit of conversation.
CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
“As it Happens” programme. 28 March 2025
I’ve listened to the programme twice, and unfortunately, my conversation wasn’t ultimately included. I don’t think they’ll use it now, but never mind.
A relatively small selection of Facebook comments….
Unexpected coat comments and queries
My coat caused a number of queries, and even an on-air compliment from Jon Richardson so in the interest of being as thorough and dull as possible, here’s some information about that too.
Way back in about 2013, I walked past the Zara clothes store and saw a quite splendid-looking coat. I loved it, but to be honest, the cost was a bit too much for my budget at the time. I think it was like £180 or something. So instead I looked on eBay and eventually found someone selling an unworn one in my size for about £100 less. I wore it out all the time and occasionally it needed some minor repairs. By 2023, it was only fit for dog walks and not a nice going-out coat anymore. I didn’t think I’d find another after so long, but I was really pleased to find one. It was a size larger but then again, I’m a bit fatter since 2013, so the size increase was a welcome change I hadn’t realised I’d need.
I’ll be sad when my current one also gets too tatty to wear.
Killjoys & Criticism
With any bit of fun, you get miserable gits who just want to whinge in some way or other.
Some people genuinely complained that the first shape was too angular, or the placement alignment was off, or the shade was wrong. Or that my 3D printer needs tuning or that I should have used a different method of attaching it. A few people couldn’t wait to signal their virtue or Food-Snobbery by saying McDonald’s is evil or terrible junk food, and why would I choose to do free work for a multi-billion dollar organisation? Or stuff about animal cruelty etc. They completely didn’t get that this was never for McDonald’s, and it’s just a very tiny meaningless, harmless bit of fun for everyone else who’s seen it.
Pilgrimages and photo opportunities
People even wanted to have their photo taken at the famous spit now. And one person said they even drove 8 miles to do so. Of course, the paltry distance became a minor running joke in its own right. I don’t know any of these people.
Duration & Fate
The first inner “D” lasted a day or two before someone removed it. Various people from the Leeds area had already threatened jokingly or otherwise that they’d remove my new addition and through the thousands of comments coming my way, I was advised that someone had indeed removed the plastic part I’d added.
I’ve fixed the holes left by missing parts of the D and O but thankfully I haven’t had to mess about with an a-hole yet.
The newer inner “D” and “o” are fine, but they’ve only been in place for three days at the time of typing. I go to the cinema there most weeks, so I’ll check it regularly.
Legacy and conclusion
As I type, just eight days on from the first fix, it’s difficult to say how long this will rumble on for. A few people asked me to change my FB profile so that I could allow people to “follow” me. So I have a number of strangers now doing that. It means that I’ll have to be more aware of what I post and possibly make my posts broader and not too personal.
Within a week, someone (not me) started selling DMC themed greetings cards on Etsy based on the missing “D”.
I was getting tagged in several of images about damaged signage.
I’ll be looking out for the public calling out for me, because not all heroes wear capes, but some wear nice coats.
Throughout this, McDonald’s hasn’t reached out or commented anywhere, which is less surprising to me than other people. And I never got so much as a free burger out of it. And that’s absolutely fine. It was never for reward or recognition.
The White Rose Centre have also said they’ve got a gift card for me, but I don’t know how much is on it yet. That’s nice of them.
p.s. If you’ve been directed to this page from a Facebook group, it’s worth checking out some of my other stuff on this website.
To get a quick idea of what’s on here, maybe just have a look at the loose Top 40. It needs updating though, as new stuff is created all the time and I don’t always amend these pages often enough.