McDonald's, Pepsi Celebrate China

Photo by hirotomo/Flickr CC

The People's Republic of China will celebrate its 60th anniversary tomorrow with a massive parade designed to showcase the country's military prowess.

American food companies are honoring the occasion in their own ways.

Though super-sizing has fallen out of favor in the U.S., McDonalds is using the anniversary as a way to promote the larger portions to a Chinese audience: the hamburger chain is giving away a free Coca-Cola glass to customers who super-size their meals, the UK Telegraph reports.

The Telegraph also says Pepsi has launched its own anniversary-themed campaign:

Pepsi has unleashed television adverts showing thousands of youths using Pepsi cans as microphones and singing, "You are always in my heart, China bless you."

The company invited the public to send messages about China's greatness to a website and has received more than four million submissions in the first week. "We are always looking for new ways to form deeper bonds with our consumers," said Harry Hui, Pepsi's chief marketing officer in China.

Here's one of the Pepsi ads. According to the blog designbrandchina, the song playing in the background is a "traditional song" whose title means "big China."

And you can see the promotional Web site here--it requires no knowledge of Chinese to get its point across.

Some residents of Beijing may not be able to order at McDonald's or buy Pepsi at the store on the day of the anniversary, though--police have told people who live near Tiananmen Square, a central point in the parade, to stock up on food, as they may not be able to leave their homes during the celebration.