McDonald's is going to have its hands full in the coming months when it comes to maintaining its PR image. The release of Eric Schlosser's new book, "Chew On This:
Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food," and the upcoming film version of Schlosser's earlier best-seller, "Fast Food Nation," is an unappetizing prospect for
McDonald's brand image. While the company prepares itself against this one-two PR punch, McDonald's has found itself in the news recently with other stories relating to its daily
operations. Does McDonald's deserve the Good PR seal of tasty approval for the way it handled these stories, or does it get the Bad PR smack of goofed-up brand polishing?
| The PR Focus | Good PR or Bad PR? |
|---|---|
| During last month's Passover holiday celebrations in Israel, McDonald's removed desserts from its children's menus that were not designated as
kosher for Passover. However, the Israeli McDonald's franchises did not replace the desserts with items that were acceptable for the holiday's dietary requirements - nor were the prices reduced for the dessert-free meals. |
BAD PR: What's worse than paying the same price for what was basically a smaller meal? Well, the cherry on this whipped cream disaster is the
fact that six months earlier McDonald's raised the prices in all of its Israeli restaurants by three percent. While the traditional seder passes over the McDonald's menu, this bit of price gouging is anything but kosher. |
| On April 6, Greenpeace activists in chicken suits stormed British McDonald's restaurants. Some chained themselves to the chairs within the
McDonald's others fly-posted cartoons of a chainsaw-wielding Ronald McDonald. The reason for this fowl play were charges that Amazonian rainforest has been destroyed in favor of soya farming which is used by an animal feed producer whose chickens are processed into Chicken McNuggests. |
BAD PR: Even though McDonald's British offices noted that the majority of its food ingredients come from the UK and Ireland, and even though
there is no documented evidence that McDonald's itself is specifically responsible for Amazonian deforestation, the company's reputation for generating negative media coverage made it too big of a target to ignore. And kudos to Greenpeace for this wacky guerrilla chicken PR stunt! |
| You heard of reality TV? Well, McDonald's is expanding that into reality advertising. The company launched an online competition to feature
average people as part of the design of their in-store packaging. Wannabe models can enter the competition via a special Web site, along with a 100-word essay in any of 16 languages and with a photograph showing why McDonald's is their favorite fast food hangout. |
GOOD PR: This Net-based casting call helps McDonald's build a new e-mail database that will benefit any future online endeavors. The
international nature of the competition will also foster a multicultural essence that always plays well in promotions. And who cannot resist the PR charms of a contest - especially on a global scale? In this case of this PR effort, McDonald's deserves a glass of champagne to go with their fries. |