Peter York on Ads: Peering out nervously from behind the golden arches
McDonald's
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Your support makes all the difference.McDonald's, to judge from the adverts and public pronouncements, don't seem to know what their real consumer problems are (as against the catcalls from the chattering classes) nor how seriously they should take them. Do the customers care most about health, new products or cool? That's why the recent adverts and product development has looked so all over the place. One week we'll get the familiar Big Mac and fries at about 10p, next they'll be talkingsophisticated salads. Fast forward and they've got Justin Timberlake and Destiny's Child in the marketing, because they're aiming away from kiddies towards "young adults". Then they'll be showing you round the kitchen and saying you could eat off the floor. Then they'll have those terrible attacks of sharing, offering reassurances over things you weren't necessarily that worried about.
This time they've got the reliable witness, the employee who's seen it all, testifying. It's Kevin Ralph, a black Brit restaurant manager who looks about 18. The nice boy from the local comp. The Army recruit. He walks to camera saying he's been talking to customers and they have questions, so here are some simple facts. The only meat in Chicken McNuggets is tasty chicken breast. Last year we reduced salt by 30 per cent. Our hamburgers are made with 100 per cent beef. We only use whole cuts - no fillers or additives. Each of these statements will have been pored over for months by food scientists and lawyers. It has to be bomb proof, because every word of it's a challenge to food reformers, environmentalists, and mischievous journalists to prove them wrong. So, chicken breast is the only meat in a McNugget, but what else is in there? And what about trans-fats, the next nutri-journalism time-bomb? Where are McDonald's on the trans-fats front?
Looking out from McDonald's HQ must be a lot like the view from the Bush ranch. What've we done to deserve this? Whatever their beleaguered state of mind I wouldn't expect too much form the Greening of McDonald's. Last year's salads have gone already. They didn't sell.
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