Earlier this month, McDonald's launched a new ad campaign for its Game Time Gold sweepstakes, which featured Mike Ditka wearing a Green Bay Packers sweater and spouting off a run of truly terrible catch phrases. At first, Chicagoans were enraged that the 76-year-old former Bears coach was endorsing the team's biggest rival in an effort to sell crummy burgers. But now that the Packers have lost each of their three games since the commercials were released, Bears fans are humming a different tune.
So the #Packers are 0-3 since Ditka put on their sweater. #DitkaJinx
— Silvy (@WaddleandSilvy) November 15, 2015
The Ditka curse is real, ladies and gentleman.
— Justin Twell (@JustinTwell78) November 16, 2015
I don't always put curses on the @packers but when I do... ITS AWESOME! #BearDown pic.twitter.com/N52BxHg0W2
— Ditka Curse (@ditkacurse) November 16, 2015
The "Ditka Curse" is alive and well, and it appears that seeing Da Coach reel off a painful series of puns like "keep your eyes on the fries" and "flagged you like a hot cake" while wearing Packers gear is more demoralizing for the team than John Elway's chin.
Ditka doesn't always jinx his endorsees, though. In September 2014, the coach was featured in an ad with Bruce Rauner, who went on to win the Illinois gubernatorial election. In that spot, he hailed the Republican for being tough on special interest, and told him to "stick to the game plan," which is apparently to gum up the state's budget process and to stop admitting Syrian refugees into Illinois.
