Clara’s College of

Commerce

McDonalds
By:
Ateeb Ansari – 01
Steffi Biswas – 03
Abhijeet Kadam -
14
Thomas Kattahara
-15
Shahil Mithani – 26
Sl.
Pg.
No Topics no.
.
1 History 3
2 PR at McDonald’s 7
3 McDonald’s vs. McCafé 9
4 McDonald's on the ball in PR battle 12
McDonald's Public Awareness
5 14
Programs
6 McDonald's & "McJobs" 21
7 Animal welfare issues 23
8 McDonald Overview 24
9 News Releases 24

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10 Press Releases 32

McDonald's is the world's largest fast-food

retailer "with more than 30,000 restaurants in
119 countries serving 47 million customers each
day".

History/Founding
McDonald’s was originally established in the United
States by the brothers Mac & Richard McDonald.
After the failure of several car hop style
restaurants, the brothers implemented a system
emphasizing speed, volume, & low prices. The
new system would use mechanized kitchens,
assembly lines, & preassembled food to reduce
cost, increase production, & generate higher customer turnover. Thus,
in 1948, the modern McDonald’s restaurant made its debut. By 1955,
the first franchise was opened by Ray Kroc in Des Plaines, Illinois,
marking the creation of the McDonald’s Corporation. Though the
McDonald’s brothers sold a few franchises, the franchising boom didn’t
begin until Kroc purchased the rights to the chain in the early 1960’s.
Kroc emphasized the idea of fast, low-priced, quality products offered
in a clean, friendly environment. Rigorous rules governed franchise
operations, creating homogeneity in the McDonald’s look, taste, &
experience.

McDonald’s as a Symbol of American Culture

The restaurant became the proctor of the “great American meal,” as
well as a locus for family, particularly with the rise of the Ronald HP
McDonald clown & his cohorts. McDonald’s offered a unique
experience to its consumers, advertising itself as a feel-good, family-
oriented restaurant. As John Giles, a former McDonald’s public
relations director, explained, “We offer more than just fast food…It’s
an experience of fun, folks & food.” The marketing strategy proved
successful with the American population. McDonald’s, with its

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enormous popularity, widespread presence & standardized experience,
became a permanent fixture on the American cultural landscape.
Familiar McDonald’s restaurants soon began cropping up all over the
country. In less than a generation, McDonald’s became “an American
roadside landmark… characterized by a distinguishable form, visibility,
& significance.” & before long, the corporation began expanding
internationally, selling the rights to McDonald’s all over the world.
Today, the golden arches are permanently etched in the minds of
consumers not only as a trademark but also as a uniquely American
landmark. As one McDonald’s executive explained, “McDonalds…is
really a part of Americana.” A 2004 international survey probing some
20,000 consumers in 20 countries in Europe, Asia & Central & South
America found that McDonald’s was at the forefront of those brands
considered “extremely American.” The Independent of London lauds
the Big Mac, McDonald’s best-known menu item, “as one of the great
symbols of American culture.”

The Impact of McDonald’s on U.S. Image

When the McDonald’s Corporation began internationalizing its
franchise in the 1970’s, the restaurants became exporters of American
culture. They offered “drinkable, eatable & affordable bits of the
American experience for millions of people around the world.” Those
millions came to believe that they knew & understood America &
Americans based on their experiences with McDonald’s. That
experience, suggests Joe Kincheloe in his book, The Sign of the Burger,
is one of modernity: the McDonald’s image of modernization is both
economic & cultural & indelibly associated with the United States &
that image exerts a powerful draw on diverse populations across the
globe.

The reasoning behind fast-food provides some insight into this notion
of modernity. The McDonald’s restaurants are themselves products of
an American vision of industrialization; as originally designed by the
McDonald’s brothers, the assembly-line system combined with
increased mechanization produce the restaurants’ characteristic speed
& efficiency. Moreover, the very notion of fast food restaurants such
as McDonald’s presupposes a particular lifestyle. Fast food gains
relevance in an economy where time & efficiency are precious
commodities, where the tempo of life is accelerated, where workers in

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populated urban centers must capitalize on a short lunch break &
require a convenient “fuel stop.” Privately owned & operated, both an
emblem & a consequence of industrialization & free market operation,
restaurants that offer fast food are “part & parcel of modern efficient
capitalism.” It is in this fast-paced, free market context, with its
emphasis on efficiency & technology, where McDonald’s—and other
fast food restaurants like it—becomes meaningful.
Thus, McDonald’s is not only the bearer of American food; it is also a
forerunner of an American system that embodies modernity.
McDonald’s conveys, through its numerous outlets, an entire cultural
system that is communicated not only in the kinds of food it serves,
but also the manner in which it dispenses its food (self-service), the
expected behavior of its employees & customers, the cleanliness of
the restaurant, & the speed of the meal. This culturally-specific
American approach is not seamlessly adopted overseas: the notion of
fast food, for example, collides with the leisurely meal upheld by the
French; the requirement of friendliness on the part of McDonald’s
employees appeared suspicious to residents of Hong Kong. Even when
some locales absorb & adapt to McDonald’s restaurants, the ultimate
outcome is often an intertwining of the American experience with the
unique culture in which the restaurant is embedded.

McDonald’s reflects & reinforces the image of the U.S. as the focal
point of economic & cultural modernization. In his book, Kincheloe
suggests that “[i]nscribed in those Golden Arches…is a vision of
American modernity with all of the fast-paced, automobile-based,
optimistic mobility that the Zeitgeist of that time & place could
muster.” McDonald’s has reinforced the image of the United States as
fast-paced, technological, & modern in economy & culture. That
image, however, is subject to interpretation & valuation. The approach
of this Americanized vision of modernity is increasingly viewed as an
encroachment, & McDonald’s, in conjunction with other American-
based multinationals & U.S. economic policies, is in part responsible
for this fear.

McDonald’s & Notions of Globalization

McDonald’s has certainly contributed to the common misperception
that “globalization is Americanization.” As McDonald’s becomes an
increasingly common feature in the global urban landscape, its

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pervasiveness begins to generate suspicion. Concerns over cultural
imperialism have become rampant. Local cultures & practices are
growing wary of McDonald’s presence, spawning fears that American
traditions will usurp local ones. Local restaurant owners & tavern
keepers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for example, marched against the
invasion of McDonald’s & its fast food enterprise, shouting, “Down
with hamburgers! Long live the corner bar!”

The spread of McDonald’s brings about fears not only of American

cultural imposition, but also of a more wide-ranging political,
economic, & social conversion that is associated with globalization &
capitalism & their related ills: the imposition of unhealthy food, the
promotion of standardization, & the growing inequity in wealth &
power. Jose Bové, a French farmer involved in an assault on a local
McDonald’s, stated in an interview that he attacked the restaurant
because of “the desire of these multinationals to impose this kind of
[standardized] food on the planet, their social organization in which
employees are treated like pawns, their way of destroying the local
agriculture.” Bové & his claims resonated with many in France. He had
become what the New York Times called a “national celebrity,” rubbing
elbows with high level government officials, including Prime Minister
Lionel Jospin. Even a year after the incident, about 15,000 people
gathered in support of Bové at the opening of his trial.
In the early 1990s, numerous criticisms of the McDonald’s Corporation
were brought to light during an infamous libel case in Britain
frequently nicknamed “McLibel.” Activists accused McDonald’s of
environmental degradation, providing misleading information on their
food’s nutritional content, exploitative advertising, animal cruelty, anti-
union practices, & poor working conditions for McDonald’s employees;
McDonald’s retaliated by suing the activists for libel. The ensuing trial
took years to resolve, & while McDonald’s was largely vindicated—it
was awarded about $96,000 in damages—the trial was described as a
“public relations disaster” for the corporation. There were some
important caveats to the final verdict: it was found that McDonald’s
was indeed cruel to animals, its advertising did in fact exploit children,
& the low wages paid to McDonald’s employees did depress fast-food
salaries in Britain. Some critics suggested that the trial represented an
attempt of corporate censorship & ultimately, McDonald’s suffered a
loss of much of its “good neighbor” image.

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It is unsurprising, then, that the McDonald’s Corporation has topped
recent polls as the least ethical high-profile company, above others
such as Nike, Shell, & Coca Cola. McDonald’s is not hated merely
because it is a symbol of the United States, but rather because it is a
large multinational that, to its critics, is associated with some of the
greatest injustices in the modern globalized world. It is such damaging
perceptions of American multinationals that return to haunt the United
States itself. In the minds of critics, the U.S. has become linked with
the worst of globalization & capitalism, as “the country that invented
marketing [and] that has glorified business, consumerism, &
exploitation.” Indeed, Pew global surveys have found that the U.S.
suffers from increasingly negative views of its business practices.
PR AT MCDONALDS
What I Learned About PR at McDonalds
I’d be willing to bet that almost everyone
in America has visited McDonalds at least
once in their lives. & I bet that, with some
small exceptions, that you had a similar
experience wherever you went.

McDonalds was the first job I ever had. I

started working at this McDonalds in Englewood, Colo., when I was 15
(just before my 16th birthday) until I was almost 18. This was much
longer than the average of three months mentioned by one
commentors on Bob's site. In my three years there, I learned a lot
about human nature a few other things that helped me in the field of
public relations.

As such, I have always felt a general affinity with McDonalds, even

though I know the food isn’t exactly good for me. So, when Bob
Langert, Senior Director for Corporate Responsibility for McDonalds, &
author of the Open for Discussion Blog, asked bloggers to give him
suggestions for his new blog, I responded with a few tips.

He volleyed, asking me to tell him what I learned (and everyone else),

as a crew member at McDonalds. I've given it a little thought & there
are three big lessons I learned that I carry with me today in my
practice of public relations.

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Know Your Audience
I made biscuits everyday in the 5 a.m. shift before I went to school. I
loved that shift because there were five or six regulars that would wait
outside the doors of the restaurant until it opened. We usually had
their breakfast, coffee or whatever they usually ordered on the counter
when they walked in the door. If it was cold we would let them in a
little early. In PR, knowing who you are serving & meeting their
preferences is the key to unlocking loyalty.

The Power of Having & Working a Plan

Everything at McDonalds was regimented. We wore the same uniform,
followed detailed processes for readying food, observed minimum wait
times in the drive thru (2 minutes max) & even had systems for
bagging food. Drinks first, salads, then sandwiches & finally fries (to
make sure they stayed hot). The manager would call to the grill in
anticipation of how much food we needed. Everything was timed &
customers were generally happy with the food served up by this
otherwise motley crew. Likewise, in PR it is important to have a plan in
place so that you aren’t always running from crisis to crisis.

How to Shift Gears in a Crisis

Picture this, a bus with more than 50 kids arrives & their chaperones
in the restaurant & you have enough food for about 10, the average
crowd at that time of day. It takes a good two to three minutes to get
20 hamburgers made & don’t even ask for a filet of fish, fry times are
longer – which also means we don’t have enough fries. What do you
do, well, you innovate within the plan. We took orders & “parked” the
customers to the side so that the lines didn’t get out of hand. We
pulled a person off the register to fill orders & the manager kept up
with the fries, taking pressure off of the front line. We then handed out
free kids cones to appease the crowd.

In a PR, when a crisis hits, it is important to know who does what. The
McDonald’s system makes that apparent, everyone has defined roles,
so the manager can easily make a few tweaks to “hone the plan” in
action. A PR crisis plan should do the same.

Debbie Weil at Blog Write for CEOs also carried a story about the

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McDonalds blog yesterday that mentioned this challenge to me by
Bob, & in response to her post, yes, I am in public relations.

Lifestyle PR: Will McDonald's Win the

Coffee Wars with McCafe?
As we all know you can’t go anywhere without
seeing a McDonald’s in a 20 mile radius. The
recession has been good to McDonald’s as
consumer’s trade down to cheaper & faster food
on the go. But what is next for the golden arches?
It may just be the immense buzz going around
about their new rollout of their $100 million
McCafe campaign starting this year. This long-
awaited national campaign for its new coffee line
is touted as the biggest launch in its history.
Over the past 18 months, McDonald's has been steadily introducing
hot & iced lattes & coffees, cappuccinos & mochas in individual
markets across the country, & adding smoothies & frappes to the mix
later this year & into 2010. With this coffee push, it’s the biggest
menu initiative since it began offering breakfast in the 1970s. The
$100 million spent on advertising is going to span across TV, print,
outdoor, radio, Internet, & events. These advertisements will start off
strongly throughout the summer, & well into next year. You may have
already seen their marketing push with coupon booklets in newspapers
for McCafe or in national television ads. Their goal is to portray McCafé
as a fun, affordable brand that can make even the most mundane daily
tasks more enjoyable.

McCafe has even made its way to the catwalk. In addition to their
advertising budget, McCafe is the new sponsor of Mercedes-Benz
Fashion Week. They will have a McCafe lounge & tents all throughout,
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marketing to fashion elites & fashionistas to get them hooked on their
caramel lattes & frappuccino (and who wouldn't want savvy
fashionistas with a McCafe coffee or latte in hand?)
The timing of the rollout just happens to coincide with the struggles of
Starbucks. Will this new campaign help McDonald's become the coffee
brand of choice? We'd love to know what you think.

McDonald's Corporation Elects Don

Thompson as President & COO; Jan
Fields & Jim Johannesen named to
lead McDonald's USA
OAK BROOK, Ill., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Jim Skinner, Chief Executive Officer of McDonald's
Corporation, today announced that Don
Thompson, currently President of McDonald USA,
has been elected to the role of President & Chief
Operating Officer, with oversight responsibility for
the company's 32,000 restaurants worldwide.

At the same time, Skinner & Thompson jointly announced the

promotions of Jan Fields, currently Executive Vice President & Chief
Operations Officer for McDonald's USA, to succeed Thompson as
President of McDonald's USA, & Jim Johannesen, currently U.S.
Division President--Central Division, to succeed Fields as Executive
Vice President & Chief Operations Officer for McDonald's

Thompson, Fields & Johannesen were elected by the McDonald's

Board of Directors today, & assume their new duties immediately.

In making the announcement, CEO Skinner said, "Don Thompson has

done an outstanding job leading our U.S. business, & I am confident
he will bring the same energy & innovative thinking to his new global
role as President & Chief Operating Officer. I also know he will hit the
ground running, having worked collaboratively for many years with our

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Area of the World leadership teams to share strategic solutions &
execute our successful Plan to Win. Don's U.S. leadership experience,
combined with the great record he had as Executive Vice President of
our global Restaurant Systems group, uniquely qualifies him for this
next important responsibility at McDonald's."

Andy McKenna, Chairman of McDonald's Board, said, "Don is a great

example of McDonald's remarkable ability to develop leaders who are
immediately prepared to step up to the next level of executive
responsibilities. The Board is confident that Jim, Don & the entire
senior management team will work together to continue McDonald's
worldwide business success."

Skinner noted that the promotions of Thompson, Fields & Johannesen

reflect the company's deep bench of talented & experienced
executives.

"Seamless management change is a by-product of McDonald's

commitment to leadership development & talent management,"
Skinner said. "Together with our Board of Directors, we have made
succession planning a competitive advantage for our company
worldwide."

"I'm confident our positive momentum & business performance in the

U.S. will continue under Jan Fields & Jim Johannesen," Thompson said.
"Jan has been my trusted colleague in leading our U.S. system, & I
know she has the complete respect & total support of our owner-
operators, suppliers & staff. Jan epitomizes the very best values of our
system--a commitment to franchising, continuous improvement, &
putting our customers at the center of everything we do. With the
support of Jim Johannesen, she will continue to drive customer
satisfaction & value."

Thompson, 46, began his McDonald's career in 1990 as an engineer in

the Restaurant Systems Group. He moved into restaurant operations
four years later, & rose quickly through the operations ranks. He was
named Regional Manager of the San Diego Region in 1998, & was
promoted to Regional Vice President a year later. In 2000 he was
named President of the Midwest Division of McDonald's USA, & in 2001
was appointed President of the company's West Division. In 2004, he
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returned to Oak Brook as Executive Vice President of McDonald's
Restaurant Systems Group. A year later he was promoted to Executive
Vice President & Chief Operations Officer for McDonald's USA, & in
2006 was named President of McDonald's USA.

Fields, 54, began her McDonald's career as a crew person for a

McDonald's owner-operator, & joined McDonald's Corporation in 1978
as a Restaurant Manager Trainee. She moved through McDonald's
operations career path as an Area Supervisor, Field Consultant,
Operations Manager, & Director of Operations. In 1994, she was
promoted to Regional Manager of the Pittsburgh Region. In 2000,
Fields was promoted to U.S. Senior Vice President & Central Division
Support Officer. Three years later, she was named U.S. Division
President for the Central Division, & in 2006 she was named to her
current role as Executive Vice President & Chief Operations Officer,
McDonald's USA.
Johannesen, 55, joined McDonald's in 1979 as an attorney in the
Corporate Legal Department. In 1986, he was named Director for
McDonald's Business Affairs group, & in 1992 he became an Assistant
Vice President within the U.S. Restaurant Development Department. In
1998, Johannesen moved into restaurant operations as Regional Vice
President of the Phoenix Region. Three years later he was named Vice
President & General Manager of the Chicago Region. In 2002 he was
promoted to U.S. Senior Vice President & Chief Support Officer for
McDonald's USA. In 2006, he was promoted to his current role as
President of the Central Division.

Complete biographical information for Thompson, Fields & Johannesen

is available through McDonald's Corporate Media Relations
Department at
http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/bios.html.
McDonald's is the leading global foodservice retailer with more than
32,000 local restaurants in more than 100 countries. About 80% of
McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned & operated by
franchisees.

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McDonald's on the ball in PR battle
McDonald's is upping the ante in its PR battle against
critics who link its food with childhood obesity by
funding the training of 10,000 community football
coaches across the country.
The company has trained 5,100 local club level
football coaches across the UK since 2002 & hopes its
efforts will have a trickle-down effect in the battle
against the negative PR that is engulfing the company.

Unlike Walkers, which promoted a school books campaign, McDonald's

prefers a low key approach, advertising on noticeboards about local
football teams in its outlets rather than through a large advertising
campaign.
"It's a community programme for McDonald's, it's not a marketing
programme," said Caron Beith, the head of Leo Sports, a division of
Leo Burnett, McDonald's advertising agency.
The coaching programming is one plank in McDonald's PR strategy in
the obesity debate.

The company has stepped up advertising its salads & healthy foods to
counter negative publicity surrounding the release of the anti-
McDonald's documentary, Super Size Me, in which filmmaker Morgan
Spurlock damaged his liver after eating nothing but McDonald's food
for a month. McDonald's launched a new phase in its healthy eating
campaign with a newspaper advertisement asking readers, "Don't
fancy a Hamburger?" & answering, "Then you have come to the right
place." Another advert promoted its salads in press adverts with the
caption, "Funny looking fries". Ms Beith said the community
programme had benefits for McDonald's in the obesity PR war.
"McDonald's uses the coaching programme to encourage people to be
more active," she said.

The coaches are recruited & trained by the Football Association in

England, & the relevant associations in Scotland, Wales & Northern
Ireland. But children & their parents cannot fail to be aware that
McDonald's funds them. The coaches wear tracksuits with McDonald's

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logos & use 16 footballs supplied in two kit bags that are branded with
the McDonald's logo.

"When Ray Kroc started McDonald's, being a part of the community

was part of his ethos," Ms Beith said.

The company is on track to achieve its target of training 10,000

coaches by 2006. It has a long-standing history in sponsoring
grassroots football in Britain. By the end of 2004, it will have invested
£21.2m such programmes since 1995.
To date 400 McDonald's staff have become coaches & police in Cardiff
have used the programme to build links with young people in deprived
areas.
When the programme ends in two years the FA will have trained 8,000
coaches in England. Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland football
associations will train 2000 coaches.

The programme has generated good PR for the brand. In January pop
singer Justin Timberlake, who sings the global McDonald's jingle I'm
Lovin' It, dropped in on Berryhill Primary School in Scotland with Kenny
Dalglish, the head of McDonald's Scottish football, for a coaching
session.

McDonald's Public Awareness Programs

Mc Donald’s & obesity
Following unsuccessful class actions against fast food retailers in the
U.S. over obesity, McDonald's has sought to shield itself from future
actions by promoting 'personal responsibility' & diversifying its menu
options & changing its advertising style. In April 2004 McDonald's
announced its commitment to "balanced lifestyles." "Our customers
were telling us that they wanted more choice & balance. We started
working vigorously on the plan to pull things together. A lot of the stuff
that was announced today was in the making for one or two years,"
Ken Barun, corporate VP for balanced lifestyles & CEO & president of
the Ronald McDonald House Charities told PR Week.

McDonald's announced it would "educate, assist, & engage consumers

in ways that change individual behavior, resulting in better
food/energy (calorie-in/calorie-out) balance in their lives." Initiatives
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included the "Go Active! Adult Happy Meal" which included a premium
salad, bottled water & a pedometer. The program gained the
endorsement of the U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services Tommy
G. Thompson. "Having him there was a real endorsement for us & the
work that we're doing. He's established [good] relations with our US
president Mike Roberts," Barun told PR Week. McDonald's also
promised to take an "industry-leading role" in working with Health &
Human Services to determine the best ways to communicate nutrition
information to consumers.
In November 2004, PR Week reported that McDonald's head of U.S.
communications, Michael Donahue, is "an adherent of using third-party
endorsers." Donahue "had seen firsthand the value of using third-party
endorsers" when McDonald's "was fighting a battle over the role its
packaging played in waste-disposal problems in the late 1980s & early
'90s." He used that approach in the company's "balanced lifestyle" PR
campaign: "McDonald's aligned itself with Paul Newman as it
introduced its new salads last year. Salads were rolled out in April with
a New York press conference featuring Newman," reported PR Week.

Additional luminaries were enlisted to pitch McDonald's new Fruit &

Walnut Salad in 2005. The campaign's aim was to associate the salad
with the celebrity cache of young, healthy, thin & hip superstars.
McDonald's tied the announcement of the salad to its sponsorship of
Destiny's Child world tour, a musical act with a huge teenage audience
that McDonald's sought to tap & impress with their musical icons'
ostensible endorsement of the salad. Tennis champion Venus Williams
also jumped on the salad bandwagon. Additionally, nutritionist Dr.
Rovenia Brock was also enlisted to "help spread the message of
balance creation nationwide to key influencers & McDonald’s
customer’s nationwide--particularly African American families." This
marketing tie-in along with celebrity endorsements is part of
McDonald's broader effort to include African Americans among its
"key" marketing demographics. Targeting this audience had already
been an important business strategy, however, as in March 2005,
McDonald's announced an offer to pay hip-hop artists in exchange for
plugging Big Macs in their songs. In response, BusinessWeek
commentator David Kiley wrote, "I happen to think McDonald's, for all
the flack it gets about the childhood obesity problem, has a perfect
right to sell Big Macs. But here's where the logic of this hip-hop plan
jumps the rails for me. McDonald's just kicked off a campaign to
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advertise healthy eating & promoting physical activity to couch potato
kids. Statistics are pretty clear that the obesity problem is especially
bad among minorities in urban neighborhoods, arguably because there
are more fast-food joints in poor neighborhoods than produce stands &
good quality supermarkets."

The chain also worked with Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer, Bob
Greene. "The result was the Go Active! American Challenge with Bob
Greene, a campaign that had Greene visiting 36 cities to talk to
consumers about balancing exercise with healthy eating & living
habits." PR Week reported, "The Greene campaign garnered more than
1 billion media impressions for McDonald's & helped defuse negative
publicity from the film Super Size Me."

Enlisting "moms"
In June 2007, Advertising Age reported that McDonald's is recruiting
mothers as "quality correspondents" to observe & report on its
operations, in an attempt to deflect criticism that its fast food makes
children fat. In a message sent to "mother-oriented social networks &
freebie product sites" McDonald's offered mothers a chance at
"behind-the-scenes access to the farms [where] our fresh ingredients
are grown." The winning mothers "are expected to participate in as
many as three 'field trips' lasting two to three days, & receive
payment for 'reasonable travel expenses.'" A McDonald's
spokesperson said the company will then give mothers "avenues to be
able to share their findings." McDonald's opened its "moms' quality
correspondence" PR campaign in early June 2007, meeting with the six
mothers "at the company's global headquarters in Oak Brook, IL,"
reported PR Week. "Future interactions will include a visit to a beef
supplier in August & a 'farm field' & produce supplier in
September. ... The moms will also get the chance to work behind the
counter of McDonald's in Oklahoma City."

McDonald's PR executive Tara Lazarus Hayes said the mothers "will

get to see first-hand how menu items are made, & ask our executives
tough questions about nutrition," & also get a "sneak peek" at a
"product due to launch next year." The campaign is geared to help
McDonald's neutralize criticism about fast food & childhood obesity.
"We're also hoping to dispel that McJob image," added Hayes. "We
understand the mom-to-mom dialogue is important because they
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listen & influence each other." She explained that McDonald's hopes
"the misperceptions they had & myths that are out there will be
debunked by their [the mothers'] experience." The mothers will write
about their experiences "and have them posted, unedited by
McDonald's, online at McDonaldsmom.com."

Nutrition Shell Game

In March 2004, prior to the release of the movie Super Size Me,
McDonald's announced its intention to stop supersizing fries & sodas.
The company claimed the change was part of an overall plan to
revamp its menu. Merely eliminating the "supersize" 7 oz. French fries
while maintaining the "large" 6 oz. portion is still significantly larger
than the original 2.4 oz. size fries McDonald's first served in the 1950s,
however. Soda sizes would still range from 12 oz. to 32 oz. Moreover,
although the supersized soft drinks were removed as menu items, the
products remain available as a "promotional option" for franchises.
During a one-month promotion in Chicago, for example, McDonald's
customers who bought a Big Mac & fries could get a free 42-oz
beverage. For a Coke that means 410 calories & 28 teaspoons of
sugar. Anna Rozenich, a spokesperson for McDonald's, insisted that
this was not supersizing but was giving the franchises flexibility to
promote larger sizes if competitors were offering larger sizes.
In 2003, McDonald's salads, one of the company's touted "healthy"
items, were among the worst offenders on a nutritional analysis of
fast-food salads conducted by the Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine (PCRM). PCRM noted that all of the corporation's
salad entrees contain chicken & concluded that all the salads "may
very well clog up your arteries." The Bacon Ranch Salad with Crispy
Chicken & Newman's Own Ranch Dressing was awarded "the dubious
distinction of having the most fat of any salad rated. At 661 calories &
51 grams of fat, this salad is a diet disaster," with "more fat & calories
& just as much cholesterol as a Big Mac." Soon after the study was
released, McDonald's revised its nutrition facts to list all of the salads
without chicken as an option.

McDonald's also updated its Happy Meals to combat charges that it

was turning young people into loyal Big Mac & McFlurry fans. "Happy
Meal Choices" gives parents the options of replacing French fries with
"Apple Dippers" & Coke with apple juice or milk. There is, however, no
substitute for the hamburger, cheeseburger or Chicken McNuggets.
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McDonald's, like other fast-food restaurants, must get food, any food,
into the mouths of cash-carrying customers, so when one of the new
items fails to make money, it is quickly removed. Such was the fate of
the apparently less than popular Go Active! Adult Happy Meal, which
was jettisoned soon after it had delivered the desired halo effect of
positive feelings about the chain after its introduction in 2004.

Encouraging Kids to Get Fit

In January 2005, McDonald's Chief Creative Officer Marlena Peleo-Lazar
told a government panel concerned with food marketing to children
that Ronald McDonald had morphed from "chief happiness officer" into
an "ambassador for an active, balanced lifestyle" & was visiting
elementary schools to tout exercise. Ronald also got a makeover to
look more active in June 2005, trading in his trademark yellow
jumpsuit for sportier garb. McDonald's also introduced a new program
called Active Achievers in fall 2005 to "deliver educational messages
to students about nutrition, & balance between eating right & staying
active." They also announced a program called Passport to Play, which
was distributed to 31,000 schools & seven million children.
Psychologist Susan Linn, cofounder of the Campaign for a Commercial-
Free Childhood, said McDonald's had no place in schools: "This is
another marketing ploy. The notion that children need Ronald
McDonald to get them to enjoy exercise is bogus. Given the
opportunity, kids naturally like to be active."

Menu Labeling
In 2006, McDonald's announced its intention to place nutrition
information on the packaging of most of its menu items to, in part,
combat the indictments of the voluntary system of menu labeling that
relegated much of this information to brochures or company websites.
McDonald's called the move "the latest transparency initiative
information to help customers make informed choices." Critics contend
that seeing the calories on the wrapper of a cheeseburger you've
already purchased is ineffective.

Ironically, only thirty years earlier, in 1975, however, McDonald's had

fought off a federal proposal to require nutrition labeling on packaging,
using much the same language that critics of the 2006 announcement
were using to point out the limitations of the packaging approach.
Despite expressing profound distaste for the idea of menu labeling in

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the 1970s, McDonald's reluctantly agreed to make nutrition
information available through in-restaurant brochures. McDonald's also
claimed that they had decided to give out nutrition information
voluntarily, without mentioning that they had been forced to do it by
the attorneys general in New York, Texas & California.

In 1990, McDonald's (and the rest of the restaurant industry) managed

to successfully exempt itself from the Nutrition Labeling & Education
Act's updated "Nutrition Facts" law, which required that all packaged
foods be labeled with specific nutrition data. Industry's sway over
lawmakers was so great, however, that they managed to escape the
FDA's labeling rules. McDonald's continues to combat putting nutrition
information on menu boards. McDonald's CEO Jim Skinner claimed that
doing so would be too complex & slow down service.

"Pledging" to do better
In 2006, McDonald's joined the Children's Food & Beverage
Advertising Initiative launched by the Council of Better Business
Bureaus, which asks participating companies to prepare a voluntary
"pledge" to shift a portion of their advertising to kids under 12 to
healthier choices. McDonald's released its pledge in July 2007. The
pledge promises to, among other things, direct 100% of national
advertising to children under 12 to furthering "the goal of healthy
dietary choices;" advertise either the 4 piece Chicken McNuggets
Happy Meal or Hamburger Happy Meal as the healthier option; limit
the use of licensed characters to the promotion of healthier choices; or
place its food on any program directed at kids. They created a
supplement to the pledge in May 2008 that added more meals to the
list of advertised foods that qualified as a "healthier option."
McDonald's defines "healthier choices" as those under 600 calories, a
highly caloric meal for a child.
Additionally, in November 2008, McDonald's received an award for
multicultural advertising from the Association of National Advertisers
for a television commercial featuring children under 12 waving bags of
McDonald's food. The ad, clearly targeting children, offers insight into
the boundaries & exceptions made in the pledge.

Countering "Super Size Me"

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Early in 2004, Morgan Spurlock released a documentary film, Super
Size Me, in which he ate three meals a day at McDonald's & gained 25
pounds. The title of the film is a play on the now abolished McDonald's
"Super Size" menu option. In May, when the documentary was slated
for release in 35 theatres in the U.S., Walt Riker, McDonald's VP of
corporate communications, told PR Week that the company was
"responding aggressively because the film is a gross misrepresentation
of what McDonald's is all about". According to PR Week McDonald's
has been promoting its global nutritionist Cathy Kapica with the
company pleased to report that she has been quoted in the Chicago
Sun-Times, the Los Angeles Times & will appear on CNN, CNBC & in
an Associated Press story. The trade magazine also reported
McDonald's had released both a video news release & an audio news
release & that "an aggressive independent third-party response"
would be issued by the American Council on Science & Health (ACSH).
ACSH's Ruth Kava had a column published on Tech Central Station.
In response to Spurlock's film So-so Whaley, an adjunct fellow with the
Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has launched her own 30-day
McDonald's only diet. "This anti-corporate, anti-fast food take on the
'evil' McDonald's is nothing more than simple junk science & should
be relegated to the comedy section at Blockbuster once it is
distributed. To be honest, I've had it with all the doom & gloom,
alarmist, anti-everything attitude of certain individuals &
organizations who want to control my life, your life, everyone's life with
little regard for individual tastes, freedom of choice & personal
responsibility," she wrote in her diary:
My real purpose is not to prove something, rather, I see this as a
unique opportunity to explore food & weight issues & separate
the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what is reported about
our health & well being in the media & other sources.
While Waley claimed her project was not out to prove something, the
media head line for from CEI the day before her 30-day project
indicated was:
Filmmaker to Challenge Fast Food Perceptions: Will Eat at
McDonald's for 30 Days & Lose Weight.
The criticisms of Spurlock by others allowed McDonald's to appear
disinterested in responding to the issues raised in the film. "We see no
reason to respond to Morgan Spurlock when so many other experts
have already spoken out on the film's distortions & irresponsibility,
including those consumers who voluntarily are conducting their own
20 | P a g e
independent 30-day McDonald's diet to disprove his over-the-top
behavior," Riker said in a media release. But McDonald's U.S. head of
communications Michael Donahue & Patti Temple Rocks, who does PR
for McDonald's at the Golin Harris PR firm "credit McDonald's proactive
efforts around the balanced lifestyle theme" - in particular, the Go
Active! Campaign - "with blunting the movie's impact on sales. 'It's not
a coincidence that the movie has had virtually zero financial impact,'"
Rocks told PR Week. McDonald's in Australia filmed three commercials
which disputed some of the claims in the film. Super Size Me grossed
the highest opening weekend takings for a documentary in Australian
history. Spurlock claims he consumed 13.5 kilos of sugar & 5.5
kilograms of fat, while his weight increased by 11.25 kilos. McDonald's
Australia was the first McDonald's in the world to use advertising to
publicly attack the movie. The strategy had been to ignore it, but
research from customers indicated that McDonald's silence might be
taken as an admission of guilt.

SAFE from real labor commitments

After its protests "forced Taco Bell to pay tomato pickers a penny more
per pound," the Florida-based labor rights group Coalition of
Immokalee Workers (CIW) started "pressuring McDonald's for a similar
agreement." Instead, McDonald's joined the "Socially Accountable
Farm Employer (SAFE) voluntary certification program." Launched in
November 2005, SAFE is run by board members of the industry group
Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association & an association grantee, the
Redlands Christian Migrant Association (a childcare provider with no
experience in labor issues). SAFE is represented by CBR Public
Relations, one of McDonald's PR firms, which specializes in "activist
response management." Intertek, a firm that "already performs safety
audits for McDonald's," will evaluate SAFE members' compliance. SAFE
"does not include any input from workers," "does little to address low
wages," & "does not guarantee workers overtime pay or the right to
organize." A CIW organizer said McDonald's joined SAFE "to protect
their public image in place of making a change in our lives."
McDonald's & "McJobs"

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 "There's good reason such
service-sector positions are
called 'McJobs'," wrote Fast
Food Nation author Eric
Schlosser. His Los Angeles
Times piece described
Proposition 72, "an initiative
that would require large &
medium-sized business owners
to give health benefits to their
workers," & which California
voters will consider on
November 2, 2004. "The
leading corporate sponsor of
the effort to block its passage,"
wrote Schlosser, "is McDonald's. ... The fast-food industry is the
nation's largest employer of minimum-wage labor. ... Led by
McDonald's, the industry has pioneered a workforce that earns low
wages, gets little training, receives few benefits & has one of the
highest turnover rates of any trade." Other opponents of Proposition
72 include Burger King, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, Walgreen, Best Buy,
Target, Sears, YUM! Brands(owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut & KFC), the
California Chamber of Commerce & the California Restaurant
Association.
California's state legislature had already passed a bill in 2003, signed
into law by then-Governor Gray Davis, that required larger businesses
to offer health care benefits. But fast-food companies, big box retail
chains & their allies spent "millions of dollars to rescind the law
through the initiative process," wrote Schlosser. In their campaign to
defeat the initiative, the same groups ran television ads relying on
"scare tactics, distortions & ... fundamental misrepresentation[s] of
Proposition 72." Proposition 72 failed.

PR Week reported that McDonald's head of U.S. communications,

Michael Donahue, included "good news" about the restaurant chain's
impact on local economies as part of a new, "proactive" corporate PR
campaign. In 2002, Donahue "held a summit of the 125 PR firms that
work with McDonald's & its various owner-operators across the
country, encouraging them to tell McDonald's story locally," reported
PR Week. Donahue encouraged local owners & PR firms to showcase
22 | P a g e
"studies in various markets that showed the economic impact" of
McDonald's - studies funded by the company itself. "Local owner
groups can use such studies to show their contribution to the local
community," while stressing that the company prioritizes social
responsibility, reported PR Week. PR Week. In June 2007, Time
magazine reported that McDonald's was "lobbying dictionary
publishers to change the meaning of the word McJob -- or remove it
altogether -- on the grounds that it denigrates the company's
employees." McJob is commonly used to refer to "an unstimulating,
low-paid job with few prospects," according to the Oxford English
Dictionary. McDonald's wants to redefine it as "a job that is
stimulating, rewarding ... & offers skills that last a lifetime."

Polluting MTV
"Magazine Advertising Age reported that McDonald's has hired
marketing firm Maven Strategies to help get the sandwich name
checked into upcoming songs. Maven Strategies performed well last
year, after landing the Seagram’s Gin into five rap songs, from such
acts as Kanye West, Twista, Franchise Boys & Petey Pablo," Nolan
Strong wrote in an article.

Ad boycott against Air America Radio

McDonald's refused to advertise on the progressive Air America Radio.
In October 2006, around 90 companies, including McDonald's, told ABC
Radio Networks that they did not want their ads to play on radio
stations that carried Air America Radio.

McLibel or the ugly truth?

The McLibel Trial is the infamous British court case between
McDonald's & a postman & a gardener from London (Helen Steel &
Dave Morris). It ran for two & a half years & became the longest ever
English trial. The Judge delivered his verdict in June 1997. The verdict
was devastating for McDonald's. The judge ruled that they 'exploit
children' with their advertising, produce 'misleading' advertising, are
'culpably responsible' for cruelty to animals, are 'antipathetic' to
unionization & pay their workers low wages. But Helen & Dave failed
to prove all the points & so the Judge ruled that they HAD libeled
McDonald's & should pay $40,000 damages. They refused &
McDonald's knew better than to pursue it. In March 1999 the Court of

23 | P a g e
Appeal made further rulings against McDonald's in relation to heart
disease & employment.
As a result of the court case, the mushroomed, the press coverage
increased exponentially, the McSpotlight website was born & a 60-
minute documentary was produced. The legal controversy continues.
The McLibel 2 have taken the British Government to the European
Court of Human Rights to defend the public's right to criticize
multinationals, claiming UK libel laws are oppressive & unfair. In early
May 2004 the European Court of Human Rights has declared as
admissible Steel & Morris's claim that the McLibel trial breached their
Article 6 right to a fair trial & Article 10 right to freedom of expression.

Animal welfare issues

Business Ethics magazine criticizes animal cruelty
In 1999, McDonald’s was nominated by Business Ethics Magazine for
its' prestigious Business Ethics Award. However, the magazine decided
not to grant them the award due to animal welfare issues & concerns.
According to an open letter from the judges, published in the
November/December 1999 issue:
"We must express concern about slaughterhouse cruelty by
McDonald’s suppliers. ...Federal standards require that 100
percent of cows be fully stunned before they are skinned,
but (according to) a McDonald’s training video ...it’s
acceptable if five cows in every 100 are conscious while
skinned & dismembered. It’s inhumane to allow animals to
suffer in this manner. & the real error rate may be far more than
5 percent ...In the case of chickens, U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) recommendations say they should have at
least 2 square feet of space, yet McDonald’s suppliers allow only .
55 square feet—not enough space for a chicken to spread one
wing. In addition, birds are bred to grow so large, their legs can’t
bear the weight, & they suffer painful leg deformities. Surely it’s
not asking too much to change policies, so that these animals are
granted a modicum of comfort."
Although McDonald’s referred to itself as an "industry leader in animal
welfare", the editors were aware of McLibel. In 1997, when Chief
Justice Roger Bell of the British High Court in London returned his
lengthy findings, he cited McDonald's as "culpably responsible" for
animal cruelty. An Appeals Court judge agreed:

24 | P a g e
 "Keeping large numbers of chickens in close confinement
inevitably leads to disease ...The high density is intentional &
unnecessary. ...In my judgement it’s cruel."
McDonald’s is largest purchaser of beef & the second largest
purchaser of poultry in the United States.

McDonald's Overview
Despite its worldwide proliferation, McDonald’s is still an indelible symbol of
American culture. Representing the world’s largest chain of fast food
restaurants, the McDonald’s golden arches are nearly ubiquitous; the chain
boasts some 31,000 restaurants in over 154 countries that together serve
about 52 million customers each day. With one of the top-ten most-recognized
brands in the world— the golden arches, claims Joe Kincheloe, even out-
compete the Christian cross—the McDonald’s Corporation poses interesting
challenges to public diplomacy.

NEWS RELEASES:
McDonald’s is the world’s largest user of beef, & of all companies,
probably has the most colorful animal rights history. From the longest
trial in British history, to the non-vegetarian French fry scandal, to their
support of factory farming practices, McDonald’s seems unable to keep
themselves out of the campaigns of animal activists.

The McLibel Trial

In 1990, McDonald’s sued five British activists for libel, in what would
turn out to be the longest trial in British history & a public relations
disaster. McDonald’s sued the activists over a pamphlet titled “What’s
Wrong with McDonald’s -- Everything They Don’t Want You to Know,”
that they had allegedly published & distributed. The pamphlet
contained numerous accusations about McDonald’s environmental
destruction, animal cruelty, employee exploitation, & unhealthy food.

At the beginning of the “McLibel” trial, three of the activists backed

down & apologized to McDonald’s. However, two activists refused to
apologize, & stood their ground. Helen Steel & Dave Morris, a
gardener & a postman, represented themselves in court with minimal
professional legal advice. Their costs were covered by public
donations.

25 | P a g e
After many pre-trial motions & hearings, the trial began officially in
1994. Expert witnesses on health, the environment, & animal
agriculture testified on the accusations contained in the pamphlet.
Throughout the trial, the defendants provided quotes from the
transcripts to the media, & the world watched as the large, multi-
national corporation’s team of attorneys bullied the two activists in
court. Negative quotes on nutrition, working conditions, &
environmental destruction came from McDonald’s own witnesses &
documents, which provided ample fodder for the media frenzy.

Arguments continued through 1996, & in 1997, the judge rendered his
decision. He ruled that the defendants had not proven the truth of
their accusations relating to rainforest destruction, heart disease &
cancer, food poisoning & starvation in the Third World. But they had
proved that McDonald’s exploits children, falsely claims that their food
is nutritious, is responsible for cruelty to animals & pays their
employees low wages. Because Steel & Morris were not able to prove
all of the allegations in the pamphlet, they were found liable & were
ordered to pay 60,000 pounds to McDonald’s. The defendants vowed
not to pay the money & stated that they had no money anyway, &
McDonald’s did not attempt to collect it.

In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the McLibel
trial breached the defendants’ right to a fair trial & right to free
speech, mainly because they were denied legal aid.
Although the verdict was arguably a legal victory for McDonald’s, the
case was called “the biggest Corporate PR disaster in history.”

Non-Vegetarian French Fries

McDonald’s announced in 1990
(coincidentally, the same year the McLibel
lawsuit was filed) that its french fries are
fried in 100% vegetable oil. Many
vegetarians started consuming the fries,
because they had previously been fried in a
mixture of beef tallow & vegetable oil.
However, in 2001, it became widely known
that the “natural flavor” in the list of
ingredients of the fries was actually beef
extract. The beef extract is added before the
26 | P a g e
fries are frozen & shipped to the individual restaurants, where they
are then fried in 100% vegetable oil.
Faced with the wrath of vegetarians who felt that they had been
deceived, McDonald’s stated that they had never claimed that their
fries were vegetarian. However, some McDonald’s employees did claim
that the fries were vegetarian. & in 1993, McDonald’s had sent a letter
in response to a customer inquiry that listed the fries as a food that
vegetarians can enjoy at McDonald’s. A class action lawsuit was filed
against McDonald’s on behalf of all vegetarians, & McDonald’s agreed
in 2002 to settle for $10 million, with $6 million going to vegetarian
organizations.

Factory Farming
In 1999, PETA began a campaign against
McDonald’s, demanding that the company
purchase products only from suppliers that
met certain humane standards. The
“McCruelty” campaign was indefinitely
suspended 11 months later, when McDonald’s
agreed to several conditions, including buying
eggs only from suppliers that offered at least
72 square inches of space per hen & did not
engage in the cruel practice of forced molting.
However, this was not the end of the story.

By 2008, McDonald’s had made no further improvements since 1999.

During that same time period, Burger King adopted a more stringent
set of policies for animal welfare. The Humane Society of the
US demanded that McDonald’s adopt an animal welfare policy that is
at least as rigorous as Burger King’s.

In 2009, PETA renewed its McCruelty

campaign. According to PETA:
All of McDonald's U.S. chicken suppliers use a
system called "electrical immobilization" to kill
birds, which involves dumping birds out of
transport crates & hanging them upside-down in
metal shackles—often resulting in broken bones,
extreme bruising, & hemorrhaging. The birds

27 | P a g e
then have their throats cut while they are still conscious & are often
immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still alive &
able to feel pain. PETA is now asking McDonald's to "demand that its
suppliers switch to a less cruel method of chicken slaughter called
controlled-atmosphere killing, or CAK."

As long as McDonald’s is the world’s largest user of beef, they will

never be the corporate paragon of animal welfare. They do, however,
have a long way to go before they can even hope to no longer be a
target for animal activists.

PETA vs. McDonald's: The Nicest Way to Kill a Chicken:

As of this week, People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals has ended its
truce with McDonald’s. For nine years,
PETA was working with the burger chain
“to modernize the company’s animal
welfare standards & make further
improvements” according to PETA’s
“McCruelty” site, but now the group has
lost its patience.

At issue is the least cruel way to kill a chicken. Most chickens in the
United States are shackled upside-down while fully conscious, then run
through an electrically-charged tub of water to knock them out before
they’re slaughtered. But PETA says this method only immobilizes the
birds, & they can still feel pain. Instead, PETA endorses using gas to
kill the chickens before they’re processed.

McDonald’s, PETA says, “lags behind” its competitors in switching over

to the gas method, known as “controlled atmosphere killing,” or
CAK. Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s & Wendy’s “are now giving
purchasing preference or consideration” to suppliers that use CAK,
according to a PETA press release.

McDonald’s actually studied the issue & released a report in 2005.

According to PETA, the report states unequivocally that CAK is “far
better for animals than the current slaughter method.” What the report
actually said, however, is that it was “premature” to jump to gas, as

28 | P a g e
the method was “still in the early stage of development,” but that
McDonald’s would keep an eye on it in the future.
The report wasn’t about just controlled atmosphere killing (CAK), but
about the more general subject of controlled atmosphere stunning
(CAS), which includes methods that gas chickens until they’re
unconscious but not actually dead. CAK & CAS are used more
regularly in Europe, & McDonald’s consulted suppliers there that use
these methods.

One of the big advantages of CAS, it found, is that workers aren’t

struggling to shackle live chickens. From a business perspective, that
means fewer worker injuries & the ability to put the chickens through
the assembly line more efficiently. From an animal-lovers perspective,
it also protects chickens from the sadism of bored factory workers.

The disadvantages, of course, are cost-related. Gas systems require

more workers training & take up more space. PETA has long made the
case that companies recoup these costs quickly because processing
dead chickens is so much easier & more efficient than processing live
ones — & it backs up its case with quotes from a variety of
companies that have made the switch & been happy with it. But
McDonald’s isn’t buying that argument, apparently — nor is KFC,
which PETA has been protesting & putting pressure on for years, with
no results, at least in the U.S.

And the National Chicken Council insists there is no proven animal

welfare benefit to CAS. Conventional stunning is “both effective &
humane,” it says, while gassed chickens may suffer horribly as they’re
being cruelly suffocated.
That part — the gassing part — is not shown in the PETA video that
contrasts the stunning process with the process of cutting chickens
that are already dead. & there are animal rights advocates who
acknowledge that the gassing process can be quite horrible. The
McDonald’s report even touched on the issue that while gassing might
be simple & humane on a small scale, things can go wrong once it’s
implemented in larger operations.

A member of McDonald’s Animal Welfare Council described how

chickens suffer if the gas levels aren’t correct. Both systems can have
29 | P a g e
problems, she told the Chicago Tribune. In the end, though,
she favored the gas method, saying, “I’d like to see someone in the
industry put up a full-scale commercial
plant & make it work.”

Help Stop McDonald's Cruelty

Now!
Almost everyone has heard of McDonald's, &
most people have eaten at the chain at
least once, but many people don't know
about the horrific cruelty that goes into
every portion of chicken served under the
Golden Arches.

In the slaughterhouses of McDonald's U.S. chicken suppliers, birds are

dumped out of their transport crates & hung upside-down in metal
shackles, which often results in broken bones, extreme bruising, &
hemorrhaging. Workers have the opportunity to abuse live birds, &
birds have their throats cut while they are still conscious. Many birds
are immersed in tanks of scalding-hot water while they are still alive &
able to feel pain.

McDonald's has the ability to end these abuses.

There is a less cruel method of chicken slaughter available to
McDonald's suppliers called controlled-atmosphere killing, or CAK, & it
would cost the corporation nothing to demand that its suppliers use it.
CAK would eliminate the worst abuses currently suffered by chickens
killed for McDonald's in the U.S. In fact, a 2005 study about CAK
produced by McDonald's concluded that it is far better for animals than

30 | P a g e
the current method of slaughter.

Want to learn more..... go to McCruelty.com WARNING Video &

pictures are VERY hard to watch!!!!

Write to McDonald's now, & demand that it phase in the exclusive use
of chickens killed by CAK by requiring that its suppliers switch to this
method.

McDonald's has been using its notorious clown character, Ronald

McDonald, to try to entice people into buying its Happy Meals for
years. But most people are very unhappy to find out that the fast-food
restaurant & its evil clown are responsible for the slaughter of millions
of chickens each year in the cruelest way possible, even though less
cruel alternatives exist.

This year, PETA is offering evil Ronald

McDonald masks that you can use to
help speak up for chickens & show
the grim world of McCruelty on
Halloween. Come on, what's scarier
than an evil clown on Halloween?

If you haven't started thinking about what

you will wear for Halloween, don't worry—
we're giving you a head start. We will be
giving away a McCruelty pack that includes
one Ronald McDonald mask, 16 stickers, &
10 leaflets to share with your friends,
family, or fellow trick-or-treaters. If you
want to go all out, you may want to check
out the latest McCruelty T-shirt. The shirt
speaks up for chickens & lets everyone know "you're hatin' it."

McDonald's Fake Lincolnfry Blog

I'm not lovin' it.
McDonald's sent up the whole "Virgin Mary
on a grilled cheese sandwich was sold on e-

31 | P a g e
Bay" saga in their Super Bowl ad called Lincolnfry. It is about a French
fry that looked like Abe Lincoln. They did a series of two ads. You are
introduced to the concept in the first ad & someone buys the fry on e-
Bay in the second ad. I was impressed enough at the time. They push
you to a custom Web site a la subservient chicken. They tapped into
a popular, humorous phenomenon. The ad series was poorly done
however. If you don't see the first ad, the second ad makes little
sense. Anyway, I dutifully visited the site & was intrigued initially to
see it also had a blog. Then I realized it is a fake blog. Even the post
comments are bogus. Boo. Hiss. What's the point? No one in their right
mind would believe the blog is real. So while it is not deceptive, it still
stinks. The site is so very camp to begin with; the fake blog is simply
trying too hard. I suspect that McDonald's is probably already gearing
up for next year's Super Bowl. Super Bowl XL? Are you kidding me? It
will be a Super Size Super Bowl to be sure.
Historic Shareholder Agreement Reached with
McDonald's on Pesticide Use Reduction
First Environmental/Worker Health Shareholder Resolution From
College Endowment Prompts Action By Nation’s Largest Potato
Buyer

Washington, DC – March 31, 2009 -- Responding to shareholder

concerns, McDonald’s Corporation has agreed to formally survey &
promote best practices in pesticide use reduction within its American
potato supply chain. As the largest buyer of potatoes in the US,
McDonald’s commitment will support progress on this important issue,
which affects the environment, public health, & farm employees.
This agreement led to the withdrawal of a shareholder resolution filed
by the Bard College Endowment, Newground Social Investment, & the
AFL-CIO Reserve Fund. This was the first shareholder resolution
focused on environmental & worker health issues ever to be filed by a
college or university endowment.

Through this agreement, McDonald’s has committed to: (1) survey its
current U.S. potato suppliers; (2) compile a list of best practices in
pesticide reduction that will be recommended to the company’s global
suppliers (through the company’s Global Potato Board); & (3)
communicate findings related to best practices to shareholders, & in
the company’s annual corporate social responsibility (CSR)report.

32 | P a g e
The agreement was developed in collaboration between shareholders
& McDonald’s, with support from the Investor Environmental Health
Network.
Bard College student Katherine Burstein, a member of the college’s
Committee on Investor Responsibility, said: "The Bard community
believes that colleges & universities can leverage their power as
investors for positive social change. Through our work with the
Responsible Endowments Coalition – which works on responsible
investment issues with colleges & universities across the nation – we
learned about the measures companies can take to reduce the
undesirable effects of pesticide use, & decided to engage McDonald's
on the issue.”

Newground Social Investment CEO Bruce Herbert, a member of the

Board of Directors of the Institute for Children’s Environmental Health,
said: “Because McDonald’s has such a commanding presence in the
marketplace, this commitment offers the promise of significant
reductions of pesticide use – which will benefit consumer health, as
well as farm workers, local agricultural communities, & the
environment.”

"Consumers, workers & our environment all suffer from over-use of

pesticides," said John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO. "As investors,
we knew McDonald's could take an important first step & we're ready
to work with the company to change & grow."

Taun Toay, administrative member of Bard College’s Committee on

Investor Responsibility, said: "Bard College prides itself on the
progressive education it affords its students. Part of such an education
should involve active citizenship, including a willingness to engage
companies over issues of concern. Sound environmental policies
reflect strong corporate governance & we are quite pleased that
McDonald’s is taking further steps in that direction."

Dr. Richard Liroff, executive director of the Investor Environmental

Health Network, said: “Leadership companies such as Sysco (which
supplies Wendy’s), General Mills, & Campbell’s have already
demonstrated that pesticide use reduction makes sense from both an
environmental health & business perspective. We welcome

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McDonald’s stepping up to the plate & look forward to supporting the
company’s efforts to reduce pesticide use in the future.”
Apprenticeships will be made available to all employees at
McDonald’s, it was announced today.

In 2009 the restaurant chain aims to provide Apprenticeships to up to

6,000 of its 72,000 UK workforce & then up to 10,000 per year from
2010, providing staff with the opportunity to gain a valuable, nationally
recognised qualification that is equivalent to five GCSEs grade A*-C.
The move will make McDonald’s the UK’s largest Apprenticeship
provider.

David Fairhurst, Senior VP, Chief People Officer, McDonald’s UK, said:
“In these challenging economic times, it is more important than ever
for employers to invest in their staff. With the service & hospitality
sector now one of the biggest employers in the UK economy – over 1.9
million people are employed by the hospitality & tourism sector alone
- it’s vital that we & others in the industry invest in skills & training
now to ensure the sector is ready to shine when the UK emerges from
the downturn.”

Following the completion of a successful 80 restaurant trial,

McDonald’s will now offer employees across its 1,200 UK restaurants
the opportunity to gain a Level 2 Apprenticeship in Multi-Skilled
Hospitality. The qualification recognizes job-specific skills acquired
through workplace training, combined with GCSE-equivalent Maths &
English.

McDonald’s will be subject to Ofsted inspections, like any other

educational establishment. McDonald’s will be required to meet the
same standards & criteria as any other provider, such as schools & FE
colleges, & its Apprenticeships will be accredited by leading awarding
body City & Guilds.
David Fairhurst commented: “We’re proud to take this significant step
forward in offering our employees the opportunity to gain another
nationally recognised qualification. The success of our Apprenticeship
trial, & the national rollout we’re announcing today, show that
classroom learning is no longer the only route to new skills & valuable
qualifications.
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“Apprenticeships will help give our employees the confidence &
competence to do their jobs to the best of their ability, thus delivering
an even better service to our customers. In the last three years we
have seen ten per cent uplift in the confidence of our people &
offering nationally recognised qualifications has played a key part in
this.

“And it is not just our people & our business that will benefit.
Apprenticeships are also good news for the wider economy. They
enable those who use a job at McDonald’s as a stepping stone to
another career, to move on to their next job with a valuable,
transferable qualification that helps them hit the ground running.

“We have put rigorous standards in place to ensure our

Apprenticeships deliver real value to our employees & their managers
who will invest a great deal of time & effort in completing their
qualifications. We’re excited to be in a position to offer
Apprenticeships to so many of our people, providing a valuable new
opportunity that will help them go further at McDonald’s & in life.”
McDonald’s wholeheartedly supports the recent call to action from the
UK Commission for Employment & Skills for employers to continue
investing in staff training in the economic downturn, & last summer
created 4,000 new jobs.

Chris Jones, Director General, City & Guilds, said: “McDonald's is a

great example of an employer that is committed to lifelong learning &
developing its staff. I’ve seen first hand that its employees are really
engaged & getting value from their training. Best of all, they’ll not
only gain a national qualification, but also learn as they earn.

“Apprenticeships change people’s lives. They provide a qualification

that’s recognised not just nationally, but internationally too.
Apprenticeships are important for UK plc – they grow skills, & enable
the UK to be more competitive in a global economy.”

Brian Wisdom, chief executive of People 1st, the sector skills council
for the hospitality, leisure, travel & tourism sector commented:
"Enlightened employers like McDonald's are helping to push the skills
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 agenda through innovative programmes that engage & motivate their
employees. We fully endorse the McDonald's apprenticeship strategy
which offers a nationally recognized qualification that will be valued by
other employers in the industry, & offers their staff a significant
investment in their career development."
This announcement adds another rung to the learning ladder that
McDonald’s UK employees can ascend, providing opportunities for all
to learn & progress. Qualifications open to McDonald’s employees now
include:
 Access to nationally-recognised GCSE-equivalent qualifications in
Maths & English
 Access to Apprenticeships, a vocational qualification gained in
the workplace that is worth five good GCSEs
 Access to an A-level equivalent Basic Shift Management
qualification
 McDonald’s also offers management development programmes
that enable employees to keep progressing beyond this.
Notes to Editors
McDonald’s has a proven track record of investing in the development
of employees & offering flexibility as part of its commitment to being a
modern & progressive burger company. In fact:
• McDonald’s was recognised by The Great Place to Work Institute
as 1 of the top 50 Best Workplaces in the UK. It first entered the
rankings in 2007 & was one of only 5 organisations with more than
10,000 employees to be included
• McDonald’s dedicated employee website ‘Our Lounge’ provides
everything from online shift scheduling, to career & lifestyle advice
& an online learning programmed that leads to nationally-
recognised GCSE-equivalent qualifications in Maths & English.
• In 2005 McDonald’s became the first large employer to achieve
the new Investor in People Profile status
• McDonald’s is one of The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers for
the ninth consecutive year
• McDonald’s was listed in ‘Britain’s Top Employers 2008’ rankings
• McDonald’s has been listed as one of the Times ‘Top 50
Companies Where Women Want to Work’ for three consecutive
years, since 2006
• McDonald’s was named ‘Best Place to Work in Hospitality’ in
2008

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• 80% of restaurant management & one in five franchisees
started as crew
• The average tenure for a McDonald’s restaurant manager is over
10 years
• Restaurant crew can choose the hours that they are available for
work in advance & their shifts are scheduled within this availability
• Parents can work during schools hours with holidays off, while
students can work around college & university, often transferring
between restaurants during the holidays
• In January 2008 McDonald's was given awarding body status,
meaning it is able to develop & award its own qualifications. The
first qualification that McDonald’s is offering is an A level equivalent,
a Diploma in Shift Management

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