It happens every now and then...viral marketing takes off, but not in the direction that the company at its center would hope. This time around, McDonald's seems to be on the losing end. John Gartner over at Marketing Shift had written just this week about McDonald's plans to partner with GM in order to give away mini-Hummers in Happy Meals. Now Gartner had a good point in that Hummer drivers aren't really the typical McDonalds' customer, so it seemed like an odd promotion.

Then came today's post, which talks about how things have progressed since then, especially on the viral marketing front. Enter "Ronald McHummer," a site that allows users to create their own McDonalds sign with their choice of smarmy saying that other site visitors can then vote on. The site has already been featured on Digg and in the New York Times and is happily buzzing it's way around the net thanks to blogs and discussion forums.