research on mcdonald's food

Fast and Pluribus: Impacts of a Globalizing McDonald’s

The expansion of McDonald’s in the twentieth century brought the fast food chain to more than 100 countries. But how well did it integrate into its new home(s)?

McDonald's Japan Swing Manager Miwa Suzuki presents a box of McChoco Potato on January 25, 2016 in Tokyo, Japan

The connection between globalization and McDonald’s is a tale of scholarly metonymy. There’s no textual shortage of evidence that references the now-global fast food chain’s success in other countries , often linking it to themes of self-sufficiency, post-industrial stability, and democracy-formed capitalism.

Among these chunks of research is a more endogenous angle that examines the impact McDonald’s has had within offshore cultures; namely, how the American fast food model has been diffused across different countries. Such case studies, which look at individual cultural phenomena and their direct applications to globalization activity, refines not only the framework of McDonald’s in theories, but overall globalization processes and strategies as well.

Japan’s stylish renditions of fast food practices, for one, existed long before McDonald’s came to the country. Given the existing popularity of convenient and on-the-go meals—including conveyor belt sushi and street vendor meals—American fast food chains were bound to succeed. Scholars John W. Traphagan and L. Keith Brown investigate this supposition by employing an ethnographic model of research, building the argument that Japan not only assimilated—but basically swallowed whole—the McDonald’s dining model , to the point that younger people especially believe McDonald’s is a Japanese company.

Traphagan and Brown emphasize that, rather than “styles of preparation or ingredients,” fast food is defined by “a style of selling food.” Essentially, McDonald’s brought no real paradigm shifts to Japan—but rather constructed a space in which already-formed Japanese cultural practices could continue.

Their case study contrasts with that of geographers Ray Oldakowski and John McEwen, who similarly investigate McDonald’s and its cultural assimilation—but in Ecuador. Their evidence shows that the integration of American fast food dining followed a different path , and McDonald’s remains an obviously foreign establishment in the cityscape. McDonald’s didn’t attempt to adapt to Japanese or Ecuadorian culture (for McDonald’s, “the strategy has been one of consistency, i.e. McDonald’s prefers not to change its way of doing business to adapt to foreign cultures, rather, it changes local cultures to meet its own needs,” they note), but Ecuadorians clearly viewed the fast food chain as a deviation from local tastes, unlike Japanese consumers.

“[A] comparison of exterior designs revealed that the McDonald’s in Guayaquil [Ecuador] were very similar to the typical McDonald’s restaurants in the United States,” write the authors. Moreover, the menus were also similar. Only 2 percent of those polled considered the food served at McDonald’s similar to Ecuadorian food. In contrast, very few interviewees considered Kentucky Fried Chicken—another American fast food establishment—different from Ecuadorian food. Eighty-four percent reported that KFC was the most similar to Ecuadorian food, and 68 percent said it was actually where they dined regularly.

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“Those results suggest that McDonald’s might gain new customers, and more visits from existing customers, if they also offered menu items more typical of Ecuadorian food,” conclude the authors.

In neither Japan nor Ecuador did McDonald’s actively work to adapt itself to the tastes of the host countries, but the depth of integration into local dining customs differed between the two nations. Such observations could prompt additional nation-specific analyses and possibly reveal additional adaptations to the “strategy of consistency” associated with McDonald’s. However, the study of the globalization of fast food from a micro-cultural angle requires challenging assumptive attitudes around American businesses and classical theories, with one of the most popular—and infamously controvertible—examples being the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention , built on tropes of democratic peace through development. Globalization and its effects could also be examined in light of McDonald’s cultural impacts on its origin country of America, opening a conversation on socio-economics and class .

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Where are mcdonald's biggest markets, is mcdonald's the biggest fast food brand in the world, digital and delivery: mcdonald’s evolving strategy, key insights.

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BMJ Nutr Prev Health
v.4(2); 2021

Comparing McDonald’s food marketing practices on official Instagram accounts across 15 countries

Omni cassidy.

1 Department of Population Health, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York, USA

Hye Won Shin

2 Department of Public Health Nutrition, New York University School of Global Public Health, New York, New York, USA

Edmund Song

Everett jiang, ravindra harri, catherine cano, rajesh vedanthan, gbenga ogedegbe, marie bragg, associated data.

bmjnph-2021-000229supp001.pdf

Data are available on reasonable request.

Social media advertising by fast food companies continues to increase globally, and exposure to food advertising contributes to poor diet and negative health outcomes (eg, cardiovascular disease). McDonald’s—the largest fast food company in the world—operates in 101 countries, but little is known about their marketing techniques in various regions. The objective of this study was to compare the social media advertising practices of McDonald’s—the largest fast food company in the world—in 15 high-income, upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income countries.

We randomly selected official McDonald’s Instagram accounts for 15 high-income, upper-middle-income and lower-middle-income countries. We captured all the screenshots that McDonald’s posted on those Instagram accounts from September to December 2019. We quantified the number of followers, ‘likes’, ‘comments’ and video views associated with each account in April 2020. We used content analysis to examine differences in the marketing techniques.

The 15 accounts collectively maintained 10 million followers and generated 3.9 million ‘likes’, 164 816 comments and 38.2 million video views. We identified 849 posts. The three lower-middle-income countries had more posts (n=324; M, SD=108.0, 38.2 posts) than the five upper-middle-income countries (n=227; M, SD=45.4, 37.5 posts) and seven high-income countries (n=298; M, SD=42.6, 28.2 posts). Approximately 12% of the posts in high-income countries included child-targeted themes compared with 22% in lower-middle-income countries. Fourteen per cent of the posts in high-income countries included price promotions and free giveaways compared with 40% in lower-middle-income countries.

Conclusions

Social media advertising has enabled McDonald’s to reach millions of consumers in lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income countries with disproportionately greater child-targeted ads and price promotions in lower-middle-income countries. Such reach is concerning because of the increased risk of diet-related illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, in these regions.

What this paper adds

McDonald’s posts 154% more posts in lower-middle-income countries compared to higher-income countries.
McDonald’s uses more child-targeted marketing themes in lower-middle-income countries compared to higher-income countries.
McDonald’s uses more health promotion themes in higher-income countries compared to lower-middle- and upper-middle-income countries.

Introduction

Poor diet is the leading cause of mortality worldwide, 1 2 and places individuals at risk for obesity and non-communicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. 2 3 Although several factors influence diet, fast food has been linked to poor diet and obesity because of its calorically dense, nutritionally poor quality. 4–6 More than 30% of US youth consume fast food daily, 7 and fast food restaurant chains have rapidly increased their global presence, particularly in lower-income countries. 8 McDonald’s is the largest fast food company in the world with more than 14 000 restaurants in the US and nearly 22 000 restaurants in other countries. 9 Given fast food’s impact on nutrition and negative health outcomes, 4 the growth of fast food companies’ internationally, especially in lower-income countries, may exacerbate the double healthcare and economic burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases. 1 10

Although the relationship between the growth of fast food companies internationally and the individual demand for fast food is complex, fast food advertisements (‘ads’) play an influential role in persuading individuals to consume fast foods. 11 Food and beverage ads are ubiquitous on television and in outdoor settings, but social media ads are an emerging area of concern. 12 Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, 13 and allows fast food companies to advertise products through posting images and videos, and engaging with their followers through accompanying captions and comments. Currently, 60% of the world’s population uses the internet and 50% of the users are active on social media. 14 According to one growth projection, nearly 60% of global internet users were using social media in January 2020, which equates to over 3.8 billion social media users. 15 In an online study surveying over 15 000 adults from the US, the UK, Canada, Mexica and Australia, 64% of participants reported exposure to sugary drink marketing through online ads or social media. 16 Fast food companies that advertise on social media, therefore, are capable of increasing their market to people around the world who regularly access social media.

Data increasingly show that the majority of food and beverage ads on social media are for unhealthy foods and beverages. 17–19 In one study examining social media food and beverage ads in Australia, all of the foods advertised on Facebook pages managed by the food and beverage brands were for energy-dense, nutritionally poor foods. 17 Another study showed that 77% of the social media ads Canadian adolescents viewed within a 5-minute period were for unhealthy food and beverage ads, and 97% of these foods were considered high in fat, sugar and salt. 18 Exposure to these types of ads may contribute to food preferences and consumption that may precipitate poor diet and adverse health outcomes in these communities. 11

One of largest qualitative analyses of fast food ads across different countries examined 16 food and beverage company websites in Germany and the US (high-income countries (HICs)), China and Mexico (upper-middle-income countries (UMICs)) and India and the Philippines (lower-middle-income countries (LMICs)). 20 Results suggested that fast food companies advertised more healthy products in wealthier countries compared with lower-income countries, demonstrating segmentation in their advertising techniques across countries. 20 That study also found that food and beverage companies promoted more philanthropic activities in lower-income countries compared with wealthier countries. 20 Another content analysis examining 2 000 social media posts in the US demonstrated that 30% of posts included captions that attempted to interact directly with social media users. 19 Little is known, however, about the marketing techniques of a single food company in countries with varying economic statuses.

To determine if there are differences in the marketing techniques across multiple countries of varying economic statuses, the objective of this study was to compare Instagram posts for McDonald’s, the largest global fast food franchise, 13 in a subset of 15 countries of varying gross domestic products (GDPs) and: (1) determine the number of followers, ‘likes’, comments, posts, video posts and total views of videos and (2) quantify the frequency with which McDonald’s uses different marketing strategies.

We identified a sample of 15 countries based on three criteria: (1) if McDonald's was sold in the country; (2) if the country had an official McDonald’s Instagram page and (3) if the country could be categorised as an HIC, UMIC or LMIC based on 2019 World Bank classifications. 21 We chose McDonald’s because it is the largest global fast food chain, 13 and selected Instagram because it is one of the most popular social media platforms for adolescents and young adults with approximately one billion active users per month. 22 23

Data collection

We collected data from September 2019 to April 2020, and the Instagram posts were gathered from September to December 2019. We used McDonald’s corporate website to generate a list of all the countries with McDonald’s fast food chains (see figure 1 for flow chart). We then made a list of all official McDonald’s Instagram accounts for each of the countries. To determine if the Instagram account was officially associated with McDonald’s, we confirmed the presence of a ‘verification badge’ on the Instagram profile. A verification badge is a blue checkmark logo that appears next to the account’s name that signifies that Instagram has confirmed the account is associated with a celebrity, public figure or global brand. McDonald’s only had one official account for most of the countries. If McDonald’s had more than one official account for the country, we used the account with the most followers. From this list, we selected a subset of 15 countries, ensuring that at least one country was represented in each of the continents in which McDonald’s operates. The country remained in the sample pool if it met the inclusion criteria. If a country did not meet the criteria, it was excluded, and another country was randomly selected. This process was repeated until all 15 countries met the criteria. We initially identified and selected countries based on GDP. On further reflection, we determined that classifications from the 2019 World Bank Database were more appropriate. 21 We then grouped the countries into their respective economic categories based on the three classifications defined by the 2019 World Bank Database: HIC, UMIC and LMIC. 21 We screen captured all posts on the official McDonald’s Instagram accounts from 1 September 2019 to 31 December 2019. In April 2020, we recorded image type (image or video) and number of ‘likes’, comments and video views, if applicable.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is bmjnph-2021-000229f01.jpg

Flow chart of country selection.

Establishing the qualitative codebook

To evaluate the posts for their marketing content, we developed a qualitative codebook based on similar qualitative food marketing studies. 19 24 The codebook ( online supplemental appendix 1 ) included the following variables: (1) food and/or beverage shown; (2) celebrity/influencers/sponsorships; (3) healthy habits (eg, exchanging fries for apples); (4) child-targeted (eg, showing a picture of a child or adolescent); (5) special price promotions; (6) promote McDonald’s app, website or McDelivery; (7) free giveaway/voucher; (8) culturally relevant (eg, religious symbols); (9) engagements (eg, encouragements to like, comment or read the bio); (10) philanthropy/charity; (11) emotional appeal; (12) new branch (ie, promoting a newly opened McDonald’s restaurant) and (13) humour (eg, memes). We discussed the definition of each codebook category to ensure consistency among coders. The definition of each marketing technique is summarised in table 1 .

Definition of the marketing techniques

Supplementary data

Pilot coding.

Pilot coding was conducted to establish interrater reliability using 10% of the posts. An acceptable level of reliability was determined by at least a 90.0% agreement or Krippendorf alpha coefficient of 0.70 or above. 25 Five coders were initially trained on the codebook and participated in the pilot coding. However, only two coders achieved a Krippendorf alpha coefficient of at least 0.70 or 90.0% agreement for all variables, and they coded the remaining 90% of the data. The codes for the remaining three coders were discarded. Because the two coders rated the same sample of data, there were two potential sets of data. The final dataset was composed of half of each of the two coders’ sets of data based on random selection. Some of the countries’ Instagram accounts had posts that were not in English, so we used Google Translator in the Chrome extension to translate these posts into English.

Data analytical plan

We used R V.1.2.1578 to conduct descriptive analyses to calculate the number of followers, ‘likes’, comments, posts, video posts and video views associated with each McDonald’s Instagram account. We also calculated the frequency that McDonald’s used each marketing technique across the 15 countries.

Patient and public involvement

The project does not include human subjects and was exempt from human subjects ethics review committee. It was not appropriate or possible to involve patients or the public in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of our research.

Descriptive characteristics

We identified McDonald’s franchises in a total of 118 countries, and McDonald’s had official Instagram accounts for 62 countries. Our subset of 15 countries (25% of all accounts) included: the US, Australia, Canada, the UK, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Portugal and Panama (HICs); Romania, Lebanon, Malaysia, Brazil and South Africa (UMICs) and Indonesia, Egypt and India (LMICs). These countries collectively maintained 10 million followers, generated 3 883 952 ‘likes’, 164 816 comments, and 38 247 012 video views, and posted 849 times during the 4-month data collection period (see table 2 ). The average numbers of followers were 2.1 million (LMICs; 0.9% of Instagram users), 3.5 million (UMICs; 2.0% of Instagram users) and 4.4 million (UICs; 1.5% of Instagram users; see table 2 ). The countries with the highest number of followers included the US (3.7 million; HIC), Brazil (2.6 million; UMIC) and Indonesia (1.1 million; LMIC).

Characteristics of McDonald’s Instagram account by country for the third quartile of 2019

*Data available from: Digital 2020: Global Digital Overview (Internet). 15 Smart Insights and Hootsuite. 14 2020 (cited 30 June 2020). Available from: https://datareportalcom/reports/digital-2020-global-digital-overview .

†Averages rounded down to whole numbers to improve interpretation.

UAE, United Arab Emirates.

We identified 153.7% more posts on average in LMICs compared with HICs. That is, we identified an average (SD) of 108.0 (38.2) posts in the LMICs as compared with 42.6 (28.2) posts in the HICs during the same time period.

Qualitative analysis of marketing strategies

Child-targeted marketing themes appeared more frequently in lower-income countries than HICs (see figure 2 ). The reverse was true for health promotion themes. We identified 71 (22.0%, see table 3 ) child-targeted posts in LMICs, but just 33 child-targeted posts (14.5%) in UMICs and 37 (12.4%) in HICs. The HICs’ accounts also portrayed more healthy habits (n=14, 4.7%) compared with the UMICs’ accounts (n=6, 2.6%) and LMICs’ accounts (n=8, 2.5%).

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is bmjnph-2021-000229f02.jpg

Food and beverage advertisements (‘ads’) shown and marketing strategies used by McDonald’s on Instagram by economic classification for the third quartile of 2019.

Marketing strategies used by McDonald’s on Instagram for each country for the third quartile of 2019

App/web, promote McDonald’s app, website or McDelivery; Branch, new branch opening; Celebrity, celebrity/influencers/sponsorships; Charity, philanthropy/charity; Child, child-targeted; Culture, culturally relevant; Emotion, emotional appeal; Engage, engagements; Give, free giveaway/voucher; Health, healthy habits; Price, special price promotion; UAE, United Arab Emirates.

Two forms of price-related themes—free giveaways and price promotions—appeared more frequently in LMICs' accounts compared with HICs’ accounts. Free giveaways were offered the most on LMICs’ accounts (n=70, 21.6%) compared with the UMICs’ accounts (n=23, 10.1%) and HICs’ accounts (n=18, 6.0%). LMICs’ accounts promoted the most special price promotions (n=59, 18.2%) compared with the UMICs’ accounts (n=30, 13.2%) and the HICs’ accounts (n=25, 8.4%).

Nearly a quarter of all posts included culturally relevant themes, and engagement tools appeared more frequently in LMICs than HICs (see figure 2 ). McDonald’s promoted the opening of a new restaurant more frequently in LMICs’ accounts (n=13, 4.0%) than UMICs’ accounts (n=2, 0.9%) and HICs’ accounts (n=0, 0.0%; see figure 2 ). After rating each country, there were several notable marketing techniques that were unique to one or a small number of countries. For example, 71.4% (n=5) of posts with the healthy habit theme appeared alongside free books and Happy Meals in Indonesia’s account and 50.0% (n=3) in Lebanon’s account. Australia’s account was the only one in the sample that recognised or expressed gratitude to employees and promoted using locally grown produce. Additionally, 93.3% of South Africa’s posts included a celebrity endorsement (n=14; see table 3 ). We also observed country-specific marketing techniques for sports, religion and culture. The Instagram account from Canada, for example, featured the Raptors, a professional basketball team from Toronto. Australia’s account referenced ‘100% Aussie’, and the McDonald’s account for India posted nine images celebrating Diwali, Dussehra and Onam, whereas the account for the UAE and Lebanon depicted Eid and Halal-certified food.

Fast food consumption is one factor influencing poor diet that may precipitate obesity and diet-related chronic illnesses. 4 Exposure to fast food ads through social media may place vulnerable groups—particularly those in lower-income countries—at increased risk for obesity and diet-related chronic conditions. 1 26 This study examined the social media food marketing strategies of McDonald’s, the largest fast food franchise in the world, on Instagram accounts in a subset of 15 countries of varying economic categories. Overall, there were more McDonald’s Instagram posts, on average, on LMICs’ accounts compared with HICs’ accounts, but the data must be interpreted cautiously given the uneven sampling. Data also showed that McDonald’s offered more special price promotions and free giveaway/vouchers on accounts in LMICs compared with UMIC and HICs, suggesting that McDonald’s may be using value price promotions as a marketing technique more in LMICs compared with HICs. Price is a key component of a marketing mix and is often used to aid consumer purchases, particularly among lower-income communities who may use price as a decision point. 27 Although no study has directly examined price promotion marketing techniques on social media in different countries of varying economic categories, these findings are consistent with studies demonstrating the disproportionate amount of price promotion offers with food and/or beverages in lower-income areas. 27–29

More McDonald’s Instagram accounts in LMICs used child-targeted marketing techniques compared with the accounts in UMICs and HICs. Studies have found that many food and beverage companies promote unhealthy food and beverage products on social media using child-targeted marketing, 18 30 influencing brand loyalty at a young age. 31 One study has shown the powerful persuasive effect of using food companies’ brand characters to market to children. 32 Other studies have shown that fast food companies disproportionately target children and young adolescents 33 and more often use child-directed marketing in middle-income neighbourhoods compared with high-income neighbourhoods. 34 Although interpretation is limited due to our sample size and uneven sampling distributions, our findings will add to the growing literature because it highlights the possible relationship between child-targeted marketing techniques on social media and lower-income countries.

This study showed that McDonald’s used celebrity/influencers/sponsorships endorsements more on Instagram accounts in HICs and UMICs compared with LMICs. The persuasive effect of celebrity and influencer endorsements on food marketing has been demonstrated in many studies. 35–37 Celebrity and influencer endorsements may lead to consumers recognising brands more easily, viewing brands more positively, and increasing the desirability of endorsed brands. 35–37 Social media influencers who endorse unhealthy foods, in particular, may also lead to higher consumption of unhealthy foods among youth compared with influencers who endorse non-food products. 36 The similarity of the usage of celebrity endorsement between the HICs’ accounts and the UMICs’ accounts could be attributed to the relatively high use of celebrity endorsement by South Africa’s account, a UMIC. Therefore, a more thorough understanding of the celebrity endorsement technique could be obtained with a larger sample size.

McDonald’s Instagram accounts in HICs featured more healthy habits themes compared with accounts in UMICs and LMICs. This finding is consistent with a similar study by Bragg et al that suggests HICs’ websites promote healthier food alternatives compared with LMICs. 20 However, our definition of healthy habits included many different aspects of well-being ( table 1 ), which may prevent direct comparison. Further studies are needed to more thoroughly assess the healthy habits category. For example, the healthy habits variable could be divided into four smaller variables: reference to healthy diet (eg, apples, salad), reference to exercise, promoting education, and promoting local produce.

Additional considerations when interpreting these data are that McDonald’s may operate differently in various countries. For example, McDonald’s operating in the UK has a different chain of command and operating structure than a McDonald’s in the US. 38 It is also difficult to identify which department manages the social media campaigns and whether the social media is coordinated within the company or contracted to a social media marketing agency. In the US, the social media accounts are typically coordinated within a company; however, if accounts are contracted out in other countries, there may be additional variables to consider. 39 Other factors include whether the country’s government tolerates Western culture, as well as freedom of media. In recent years, for instance, Lebanon has had a widespread government campaign to reduce social media accounts critical of the government. 40 These governmental differences may affect the data as McDonald’s is seen as a Western symbol, which may not be tolerated in some regimes and governments. McDonald’s may have to avert certain Western ideologies in order to comply with government regulations.

There were several limitations to our study. This study was limited to a subset of 15 countries, so the results must be interpreted with caution. We did not have an equal number of countries for each income category and countries have different population sizes, which may skew the results. However, we were still able to generate preliminary information that could be used in future studies. We also used Google Translate, so we might have incorrectly translated some posts. In addition, this study did not explore the individual-level factors of consumers—the personal characteristics of McDonald’s Instagram followers in the various countries (eg, age, household income), purchasing behaviours or consumption patterns resulting from following these McDonald’s accounts. As previously noted, these and other factors are core to the complex relationship between consumer demand and food companies. It will be important for future food marketing studies to effectively examine this complexity. These data also do not provide information on additional factors that may influence personal social media use, including age or household income. Such data are typically proprietary and expensive to obtain. Still, this study has several strengths. It is the first to provide an exploratory analysis of Instagram usage by McDonald’s, a single fast food company, in different countries of varying incomes. There are very few data examining the ways fast food companies may market products differently in other countries.

As the largest fast food franchise in the world, McDonald’s provides fast food to communities around the globe. As social media use grows, fast food companies’ social media ads may have unprecedented effects on dietary options, especially in lower-income countries. 15 By targeting certain subsets through child-targeted ads and price promotions, McDonald’s social media ads may exacerbate healthcare issues in the most vulnerable countries in the world. 1 26 These data support the growing need to address the globalisation of food and beverage marketing in developing countries that may experience higher burdens of poor diet, obesity and related illnesses. 1 26

Contributors: OC substantially contributed to the interpretation of data for the work, drafting and revising it critically for important intellectual content. HWS, ES, EJ, RH and CC substantially contributed to the acquisition and analysis for the work and drafting the work. RV and GO substantially contributed to the interpretation of data for the work and revising it critically for important intellectual content. MB substantially contributed to the conception and design of the work, interpretation of data for the work and revising it critically for important intellectual content. All authors approved the final version to be published and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Funding: This study was partially supported by NIH grant, DP5OD021373-01 (MB) and AHRQ grant, 1T32HS026120-01 (OC).

Disclaimer: The funding agencies did not have any role in the design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data or in writing the manuscript.

Competing interests: None declared.

Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

Author note: The authors wish to make it clear that so far as reference 11 is concerned, McDonald's was not one of the fast food companies that were specifically referred to in this article.

Supplemental material: This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.

Data availability statement

Ethics statements, patient consent for publication.

Not applicable.

Open access
Published: 04 November 2019

Evaluation of the impact of calorie labeling on McDonald’s restaurant menus: a natural experiment

Joshua Petimar ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3025-5931 1 ,
Maricelle Ramirez 2 , 3 ,
Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman 2 ,
Stephanie Linakis 2 ,
Jewel Mullen 4 ,
Christina A. Roberto 5 &
Jason P. Block 2

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity volume 16 , Article number: 99 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

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Metrics details

The long-term effect of calorie labeling on fast-food purchases is unclear. McDonald’s voluntarily labeled its menus with calories in 2012, providing an opportunity to evaluate this initiative on purchases.

From 2010 to 2014, we collected receipts from and administered questionnaires to 2971 adults, 2164 adolescents, and 447 parents/guardians of school-age children during repeated visits to 82 restaurants, including McDonald’s and five control chains that did not label menus over the study period in four New England cities. In 2018, we analyzed the data by using difference-in-differences analyses to estimate associations of calorie labeling with calories purchased (actual and estimated) and predicted probability of noticing calorie information on menus.

Calorie labeling at McDonald’s was not associated with changes in calories purchased in adults (change = − 19 cal pre- vs. post-labeling at McDonald’s compared to control chains, 95% CI: − 112, 75), adolescents (change = − 49 cal, 95% CI: − 136, 38), or children (change = 13 cal, 95% CI: − 108, 135). Calorie labeling generally increased the predicted probability of noticing calorie information, but did not improve estimation of calories purchased.

Conclusions

Calorie labeling at McDonald’s was not associated with changes in calories purchased in adults, adolescents, or children. Although participants were more likely to notice calories on menus post-labeling, there was no improvement in ability to accurately estimate calories purchased.

In May 2018, restaurant chains with 20 or more locations in the United States were mandated to label their menus with calorie information to comply with the menu labeling provision of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) [ 1 ]. Policymakers adopted this requirement to increase awareness of the calorie content of prepared food purchased outside the home, especially restaurant food, where calories are underestimated by restaurant patrons [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. The federal policy also preempted city and state laws requiring calorie labeling, establishing uniform requirements for chain food establishments across the country [ 5 ]. The downstream goal of the law is to enhance diet quality by changing consumer behavior and encouraging food retailers to offer lower calorie items. In part, due to several delays in implementation of the law [ 5 ], many large restaurant chains began voluntarily posting calories on their menus before it was required, including McDonald’s, which began labeling in September 2012.

Despite the popularity of calorie labeling [ 6 ] and the federal requirement, the effectiveness of this policy for reducing calories purchased in restaurants is unclear. Although some previous observational and experimental studies have found that calorie labeling reduces calories purchased [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], other studies have found no difference, especially those conducted in real-world settings, primarily at fast-food restaurants [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Importantly, many studies that previously examined this association lacked appropriate comparison groups [ 20 ]. Few studies in adolescents and children have had large enough samples to examine this association overall or in subgroups [ 14 , 17 , 21 ].

To address these gaps, we conducted a study to evaluate McDonald’s calorie labeling on customers’ actual and estimated calorie content of purchased foods, compared to customers of five fast-food chains that did not implement labeling over the study period. We examined this separately in adults, adolescents, and children.

Study area and restaurant selection

We capitalized on a natural experiment to examine calorie purchases before and after voluntary calorie labeling at McDonald’s in 2012 compared to a group of control restaurants: Burger King, Subway, KFC (except for adolescents), Wendy’s, and Dunkin Donuts (only for adolescents). These were chosen as control restaurants because they are similar to McDonald’s in popularity, price point, and types of meals served. Further, all have a wide range of menu offerings in terms of calories, allowing us to detect changes in overall trends in calorie purchases independent of labeling. Other details regarding the process and rationale for restaurant selection have been described previously [ 2 ]. Our study area included Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and Providence, Rhode Island, four large New England cities with substantial racial and socioeconomic diversity. For adults and children, we randomly selected three McDonald’s, three Burger Kings, two Subways, one KFC, and one Wendy’s in each city in 2010. These restaurant chains were chosen because they had at least two locations in each city and offered dinnertime meals. Restaurants that had closed or whose management refused participation in 2010 were replaced by randomly selecting another restaurant of the same chain in the same city. We revisited the same restaurants every year from 2011 to 2014 except when management refused to participate, in which case we selected the nearest restaurant of the same chain. We sampled adults and children in 48 restaurants, 37 of which were included in both the pre-intervention (i.e. 2010–2012) and post-intervention periods (i.e. 2013–2014). Data collection in 2012 was limited and only done to supplement collection in restaurants that were added in 2011. We collected participant surveys and receipts in the evenings from April to August in each year of data collection.

The restaurant selection procedure was similar for adolescent participants, except we chose restaurant chains with at least two sites within one mile of a high school (three McDonald’s, two Burger Kings, two Subways, two Dunkin Donuts, and one Wendy’s in each city) and enrolled participants in the early afternoon during the school year and at lunchtime over the summer. We believed this sampling strategy would help us recruit adolescents, especially after school when they may be unaccompanied by adults, thereby minimizing the influence of parent and guardian preferences. We excluded restaurants poorly attended by adolescents; this resulted in more exclusions in the pre-intervention period for adolescents ( n = 11) than we had for adults and children ( n = 5). As a result, we visited more restaurants to recruit the adolescent sample than we did for adults and children. Overall, we sampled adolescents from 53 restaurants, 37 of which were included in both the pre- and post-intervention periods. We collected surveys from June to August in each year of data collection; in Boston only, we collected a separate after-school sample from April through June in each year of data collection. This study was approved by the institutional review board of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care.

Participant enrollment

We invited all adults (≥18 years), adolescents (11–20 years), and parents or legal guardians of children (3–15 years) to participate. While there was an overlap in age eligibility for the groups, we enrolled them at different times of day, making it unlikely that any participants were included in both samples. As described previously [ 2 ], we approached restaurant customers as they entered the restaurant and requested they return the receipt and complete a questionnaire upon exiting in exchange for a $2 incentive. After participants returned their receipt, we administered a questionnaire asking them to identify which items on the receipt were purchased for their personal consumption (or their child’s for the children sample). With the questionnaire, we further assessed details that were not clear from the receipt, such as whether items were shared, the use of sauces/condiments, the addition of cheese, the type of salad dressing, and specific beverage choices. We also asked participants to estimate their meal’s calorie content and assessed participant characteristics. We gathered all information directly from adults and adolescents; for children, all questions were directed to their parent or legal guardian. Although adults and children were enrolled at the same restaurants and times, we did not include parents or legal guardians in the adult sample if their accompanying child was enrolled (we preferentially enrolled children when an adult was accompanying a child). We administered questionnaires in English, but a Spanish language version of the recruitment script was available to facilitate recruitment of Spanish speakers. The overall response rate was approximately 42% for adults (40% pre-intervention and 45% post-intervention), 46% for adolescents (43% pre-intervention and 51% post-intervention), and 44% for children (44% both pre- and post-intervention).

Our primary outcome was total calories purchased for each participant, which was calculated by linking items purchased for participants’ consumption to nutrition information from restaurant websites (collected in July of each year of the study) and summing the total calories purchased for each participant. Estimated total calories purchased was a secondary outcome because we wanted to determine if labeling helped consumers understand the overall calorie content of their meals (even if they did not purchase fewer calories). We also included whether participants noticed calorie information on menus as a secondary outcome. Both of these were assessed on questionnaires.

We measured participant characteristics that we hypothesized might affect response to labeling on questionnaires, including age, sex, race/ethnicity (“White,” “Black,” “Hispanic,” “Asian” and/or “Other”), and self-reported weight and height, which we used to calculate body mass index (BMI). We also asked participants how important price, taste, convenience, and the total number of calories were when deciding which items to order at the restaurant (“not at all”, “a little”, or “a lot”).

Statistical analysis

We conducted analyses separately in adults, adolescents, and children. We excluded participants whose estimated or actual calorie intake exceeded 5000 cal (< 1% in all samples) and those who had missing data on any of the covariates in our main model ( n = 179 adults [6%], n = 115 adolescents [5%], n = 72 children [14%]).

For our primary analyses examining the association between calorie labeling and calories purchased after labeling in 2012, we fit multivariable generalized estimating equations (GEE) that included indicator variables for group (McDonald’s vs. other) and period (pre- vs. post-labeling), an interaction term between group and period (β interaction ), which estimated the effect of calorie labeling, and covariates whose distributions appeared to change slightly over time differently between groups: age, sex, race/ethnicity, BMI, city, and restaurant chain. In adolescents and children, we adjusted for BMI-for-age-and-sex z-score, calculated from national reference data [ 22 ], instead of BMI. We included these covariates because if the population composition of the two intervention groups changed differently over time, and were related to calorie purchases, this could bias the association between labeling and calorie purchases. To account for correlation between purchases in the same restaurant, we included restaurant location as a random effect. We additionally examined differences in calories purchased between the post- and pre-intervention periods within each intervention group.

In secondary analyses, we examined differences in the predicted probability of underestimating the calorie content of purchased meals, as well as whether participants noticed calorie information on menus. For each analysis, we excluded individuals missing data on the respective outcome (across samples: 7–12% missing calorie underestimation; < 1–2% missing noticing calorie information). We ran multivariable GEEs, adjusting for the same covariates as in our primary analysis, and obtained standardized predicted probabilities of each outcome [ 23 , 24 ] within each group and period. We then found the difference in mean standardized predicted probabilities between the post- and pre-intervention periods for each intervention group, calculated the difference-in-differences, and obtained 95% confidence intervals (CI) from 1000 bootstrapped samples. In sensitivity analyses, we considered underestimation of calories purchased as a continuous measure, rather than a binary measure. We additionally calculated the proportion of customers who reported using calorie labels to make purchasing decisions among those who said they noticed the calorie labels in McDonald’s in the post-labeling period.

One important assumption of difference-in-differences analyses is that the pre-trend values for the outcomes are similar in the intervention and control groups. To test this, we ran the primary models described above with observations from 2010 and 2011 only and evaluated the interactions between intervention group and time (there were too few participants enrolled in 2012 to include in this analysis). We did not detect any significant interactions (P-interaction > 0.20 for all), and therefore had no evidence that the pre-intervention trends in the outcomes differed between intervention and control groups.

We conducted sensitivity analyses where we repeated all primary and secondary analyses additionally adjusting for importance of calories, convenience, price, and taste in participant food choices, as well as whether participants properly estimated recommended daily calorie intake. We also reexamined associations between calorie labeling and calories purchased after excluding McDonald’s customers who did not report seeing calorie labeling after implementation. Lastly, we conducted exploratory subgroup analyses in which we repeated our primary analysis within strata of participant sex (male/female), weight status (obesity/no obesity), and race/ethnicity (Black/Hispanic/White); we could not explore these in purchases made for children due to low sample size.

All statistical analyses were conducted in SAS version 9.4 (Cary, NC). We calculated 2-sided 95% CIs for all statistical tests.

The study population after exclusions (Table 1 ) included 2971 adults (31% McDonald’s customers; mean age, 37.6 years [SD, 15.9]; 43% female), 2164 adolescents (41% McDonald’s customers; mean age, 16.3 years [2.7]; 48% female), and 447 children (41% McDonald’s customers; mean age, 8.2 years [3.1]; 51% female). Most participants were non-White (60 to 84%) across all samples. Among adults, compared to control chains, McDonald’s customers were more likely to be female and Black; school-age children at McDonald’s were also more likely to be Black. Among adolescents, a higher proportion of McDonald’s customers were in Boston compared to the control restaurants due to the additional sample during the school year. The mean calories purchased was 807 (range: 0–4000) for adults, 746 (range: 0–2980) for adolescents, and 694 (range: 90–2170) for children. About half of participants across age groups responded that calories influenced their meal selection to some degree, and most answered that that recommended daily calorie intake was between 1000 and 3000 cal.

In multivariable-adjusted models, the calorie content of meals declined by 80 cal in McDonald’s (95% CI: − 155, − 4) and by 60 cal in control restaurants (95% CI: − 116, − 5) in the post- compared to the pre-intervention period among adults. In difference-in-differences models comparing McDonald’s to control restaurants before vs. after labeling, there was no change in calories purchased associated with calorie labeling (β interaction = − 19 cal, 95% CI: − 112, 75) (Table 2 ). We similarly observed decreases in calories purchased among children in both McDonald’s and control restaurants, but again no change in calories purchased associated with labeling (β interaction = 13 cal, 95% CI: − 108, 135). In adolescents, we observed neither a decline in calories purchased over time nor a change associated with labeling; the β interaction was the largest for this group though (− 49, 95% CI -136, 38). Results were similar when adjusting for additional covariates in sensitivity analyses (Additional file 1 : Table S1) and when restricting the analysis to McDonald’s customers who reported seeing calorie information on menus (Additional file 1 : Table S2).

We did not observe any changes in predicted probability of underestimating calories purchased in either McDonald’s (predicted change = 1, 95% CI: − 6, 8) or control restaurants (predicted change = − 1, 95% CI: − 5, 4) in the post- compared to the pre-intervention period among adults, and, in differences-in-differences models, there was no association of calorie labeling on ability to accurately estimate calories purchased (β interaction = 1, 95% CI: -7, 9). Difference-in-differences were similarly null among adolescent purchases and purchases made for children (Table 3 ). Results with continuous underestimation of calories were consistent with those using the binary measure (Additional file 1 : Table S3). In adults, as expected, calorie labeling was associated with a substantial increase in predicted probability of noticing calorie information on McDonald’s menus compared to control restaurant menus (β interaction = 28, 95% CI: 21, 36). These results were similar among adolescents, but were weaker among parents/guardians of children (β interaction = 13, 95% CI: − 7, 31). Results for both underestimation of calories and noticing of calorie information on menus were similar when adjusting for additional covariates, though we could not run these analyses in children due to small sample sizes (Additional file 1 : Table S4). We found that 28% of adults, 15% of adolescents, and 24% of parents/guardians of children who noticed labels said that they used the label to decide what to purchase. Among all participants in McDonald’s in the post-labeling period, 13% of adults, 6% of adolescents, and 8% of children noticed and used the labels.

When repeating our primary analysis stratified by participant characteristics (Table 4 ), we observed fewer calories purchased by adolescents with obesity in McDonald’s compared to control restaurants (β interaction = − 246 cal, 95% CI: -500, 9). Calorie labeling was also associated with reduced calories purchased by Black (β interaction = − 128 cal, 95% CI: − 237, − 19) and White adolescents (β interaction = − 141 cal, 95% CI: − 291, 10), but not among Hispanics or in either sex. We did not observe associations of calorie labeling by these characteristics in adults.

In this natural experiment of adults, adolescents, and children, we found that McDonald’s voluntary calorie labeling was not associated with large overall changes in calorie content of meals purchased compared to unlabeled fast-food restaurant meals. Exploratory analyses revealed that calorie labeling was associated with fewer calories purchased among adolescents with obesity as well as Black and White adolescents. Although there were no associations of calorie labeling in our primary analyses, adult purchases and purchases made for children in both intervention and control groups had fewer calories over time. Moreover, although there was a substantially higher predicted probability of noticing calorie information in McDonald’s after labeling compared to control restaurants among adults and adolescents, calorie labeling was not associated with improvements in estimation of calories purchased.

Our main results are consistent with most previous studies conducted in fast-food restaurants using a natural experiment design [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 20 ], which have generally found that calorie labeling is associated with noticing calorie information but not with calories purchased. Many of these studies sampled participants from the same chains as in the present study, using data collected in cities that had implemented calorie labeling (i.e. New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle) compared to control cities that had not. Only two of these studies investigated this association in children and adolescents specifically, and both did not observe any differences in calories purchased after labeling [ 14 , 17 ]. Although this suggests limited ability of calorie labeling to reduce calories purchased in fast-food settings, one exception is a study conducted by Bollinger et al., which found a significant 15-cal decrease in Starbucks purchases in New York City after labeling (compared to Starbucks locations in Boston and Philadelphia where labeling was not yet implemented) [ 7 ]. This study used > 100 million restaurant transactions, allowing them to detect very small differences in calories purchased. No other study to date, including the present study, has been large enough to detect such small differences in calories purchased. However, microsimulation studies have shown that even small reductions (e.g. 8–11 cal/day) could prevent hundreds of thousands of cases of obesity and cardiometabolic disease [ 25 , 26 ]. Thus, the lack of an association in the present study and in past small studies can be used only as evidence against a moderate or large effect of labeling on calories purchased. They should not be used to rule out a small but meaningful effect of labeling because these studies have generally not been powered to detect such effects. The statistically non-significant reduction of 49 cal among adolescents dining at McDonald’s compared to other chains, pre vs. post, provides further evidence that a small reduction cannot be ruled out in this study.

Although our study included a greater number of child and adolescent participants than previous studies [ 14 , 17 ], we could not completely separate potential parent and guardian influence over choices. Our sampling of adolescents in the early afternoon in restaurants within one mile of a high school may have increased our chances of enrolling adolescents unaccompanied by adults. However, we did not exclude adolescents who were accompanied by an adult. This is also true for children in our sample, who were all accompanied by an adult. In a study of parent-child dyads by Tandon et al., most parents (~ 70%) reported that the child alone selected the child’s meal [ 17 ], whereas Elbel et al. reported that only 31% of children decided on their own what they ate [ 14 ]. Purchases made for children in our study, therefore, likely represent some combination of child and adult preferences. However, Elbel et al. also reported no association between parental involvement and fast-food calorie consumption; it is unclear whether parent/guardian influence would have an effect on changes in calorie purchases made after labeling.

Although calorie labeling was not associated with calories purchased in our study overall, we observed a decrease in calories purchased among adolescents with obesity and Black and White adolescents in exploratory analyses. Previous studies have found that individuals with overweight or obesity are more likely to notice or use calorie labels than individuals with underweight or normal weight [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]; these studies did not examine calorie purchases specifically. Studies examining calorie label awareness or use by race/ethnicity have been inconsistent, with some finding greater benefits of labeling in White populations and others finding greater benefits in non-White populations [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Our exploratory analyses do not clarify this question because they suggest similar reductions in calories purchased in Black and White groups. Because we found no associations of calorie labeling with calories purchased among all adolescents, these analyses suggest that this null association may have been driven by participants in the Hispanic, Asian, and Other race/ethnicity groups (the latter two of which we did not conduct subgroup analyses in due to small sample sizes). To our knowledge, this has not been reported previously, though the finding in Black adolescents may be worth further investigation given the higher risk of chronic disease in Black populations [ 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Given our lack of a priori hypotheses about the subgroups and the relatively small number of adolescents in each, these results may also be due to chance.

Enhancing consumers’ knowledge of the calorie content of restaurant meals is one mechanism through which calorie labeling aims to reduce calories purchased. This is important considering that consumers frequently underestimate calories in restaurant meals [ 14 , 38 , 39 ]. Indeed, in the present study, more than 60% of participants in the pre-labeling period underestimated calories purchased across age groups, with mean underestimated calories ranging from 111 (adults in McDonald’s) to 260 (adolescents in control chains). However, we did not find any differences in estimation of calories purchased after labeling implementation. This may be a sign that calorie labels are an insufficient means of communicating nutrition information, further supported by the fact that fewer than 50% of McDonald’s customers noticed calorie information after labeling. Other studies have observed similar findings [ 15 , 16 , 29 ]. Although this suggests the need for enhanced promotion of calorie labels, a potentially bigger problem is that even among the minority of customers who noticed the labels, few (15–28% depending on age) used them to inform their meal choices. This likely explains why we observed no differences in calories purchased when restricting our sample to McDonald’s customers who reported noticing labels after implementation (though this analysis might have introduced other biases [ 40 ]).

These results together imply that promoting labels or increasing their visibility might not be enough to reduce overall calorie purchases in fast-food settings. More widespread rollout of calorie labeling across the U.S. might increase the salience of this information over time. However, many fast-food consumers may just not find this information helpful; about half of participants responded that calories were “not at all” important in their meal selection. Other types of health communication, such as traffic light labels, may better communicate the importance of energy balance for health [ 41 ], and labels might be more effective in other settings like full-service chain restaurants [ 42 , 43 ] or cafeterias [ 10 , 11 , 44 , 45 ].

The natural experiment design we used, which accounted for secular trends in calorie purchases and included a control group with similar menu offerings and clientele as our intervention group, make our results more robust to unmeasured confounding [ 46 ]. This allowed us to draw more valid inferences. Other strengths include our repeated sampling in the same restaurant locations over a five-year period spanning labeling implementation, and a racially and ethnically diverse population.

There are also several limitations to this study. First, although difference-in-differences analyses are generally robust to unmeasured confounding, it is possible that there were some characteristics that changed between groups over time that we did not measure. This could confound our results if these characteristics are related to calorie intake. However, we measured the major characteristics that we felt were most likely to be confounders and adjusted for these variables even though their distributions seemed to differ only slightly between groups over time. Second, even though this study is, to our knowledge, the largest to date of adolescents and children (and one of the largest of adults), we had low power to detect small differences in calories purchased after labeling implementation. Third, although our results are generalizable to individuals of different racial/ethnic groups, participation rates were < 50% across samples, suggesting we may have enrolled a select population among eligible individuals, such as people with lower incomes (i.e. those more receptive to a $2 incentive) and those who primarily do not use drive-thrus (from whom we did not collect data), where calorie labels may be visualized differently than in restaurants. Our results therefore may not be generalizable to all fast-food consumers in the U.S., though our sampling of participants from top-selling chains may enhance this generalizability. Given some differences in menu offerings of these restaurants in different countries, and differences in the demographic composition and health literacy of their clientele, it is unclear how generalizable these results are to customers outside of the U.S. Fourth, individuals’ purchases may have been influenced by participation in the study. However, we expect that any change in purchases due to participation in this study would be similar in McDonald’s and control restaurants and would not greatly affect our main results. When approaching potential participants (prior to their orders), we provided only minimal information about the study, stating that the study was about “food and drink choices at fast-food restaurants.” Fifth, we only assessed purchased, not consumed food. If calorie labeling is associated with reduced intake, but not purchases, of restaurant meals, our results could be underestimated. Last, labeling may have caused some people to forego dining at McDonald’s, but we were not able to capture this information due to the repeated cross-sectional nature of our study. People who decided not to purchase food from McDonald’s due to labeling might have consumed more or fewer calories for that meal at a different location than at McDonald’s. A previous study in Philadelphia found that individuals did not change their frequency of fast-food visits after labeling [ 15 ], but more information on substitution is needed to understand the effect of labeling on overall diet quality.

In summary, we did not observe large differences in actual or estimated calorie content of meals purchased in McDonald’s restaurants after calorie labeling when compared to control restaurants in adults, adolescents, or children. These findings may be partially explained by the still incomplete recognition of calories, even when labeling is present. However, it is also possible that any true effect of calorie labeling is smaller than we could detect with our sample sizes. Although there were no associations of calorie labeling on purchases, the calories purchased by adults and adolescents declined over time, suggesting this might be a secular trend that is driven by myriad factors, one of which could be labeling or the anticipation of labeling.

The recent nationwide implementation of the calorie labeling law offers future opportunities to investigate these effects in larger studies, particularly in full-service restaurants, where the effect of calorie labeling on diet quality may be stronger [ 42 ]. Because of the now widespread implementation of labeling, chains might offer lower calorie options, decreasing calorie content by default [ 47 ], which should also be examined further. The law additionally requires labeling of prepared foods in supermarkets; no studies have investigated labeling in these settings [ 20 ]. Other areas for future research include evaluation of the effects of calorie labeling on overall diet quality, including nutrient and food group composition of purchases [ 48 ]. Lastly, calorie labeling in the presence of other policies for obesity prevention (e.g. beverage taxes) should be investigated because there may be synergistic effects that have a positive impact on diet.

Availability of data and materials

Data are available upon request as long as proper data use agreements are executed and approved by the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Office of Sponsored Programs and Institutional Review Board.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants for their valuable contributions to this study.

This study was supported by a career development award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (grant number K23HL111211, PI: Block), a grant from the Healthy Eating Research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to JPB, and an unrestricted grant from the McLaughlin Family Foundation. JP is supported by T32HL098048. Funding sources had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, or writing of the manuscript.

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Maricelle Ramirez, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Stephanie Linakis & Jason P. Block

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Maricelle Ramirez

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JP conducted all analyses and wrote the final manuscript; JPB designed the study; MR, SRS, SL, and JPB aided in collecting and curating the data; MR, SRS, SL, JM, CAR, and JPB helped with interpretation of the data, and all authors read and approved the final version for submission.

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Additional file 1: table s1..

Multivariable-Adjusted Changes (95% CI) in Calories Purchased by Adults, Adolescents, and Children After Calorie Labeling in McDonald’s Restaurants Compared to Other Fast Food Restaurants After Adjusting for Additional Participant Characteristics. Table S2. Multivariable-Adjusted Changes (95% CI) in Calories Purchased After Calorie Labeling in McDonald’s Restaurants Compared to Other Fast Food Restaurants After Excluding McDonald’s Customers Who Did Not Report Seeing Calories on Menus in the Post Period. Table S3. Multivariable-Adjusted Changes (95% CI) in Underestimation of Calories Purchased (Continuous) by Adults, Adolescents, and Children After Calorie Labeling in McDonald’s Restaurants Compared to Other Fast Food Restaurants. Table S4. Multivariable-Adjusted Percent Changes (95% CI) in Calorie Underestimation and Noticing of Menu Calorie Information by Adults and Adolescents After Calorie Labeling in McDonald’s Restaurants Compared to Other Fast Food Restaurants After Adjusting for Additional Participant Characteristics.

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Petimar, J., Ramirez, M., Rifas-Shiman, S.L. et al. Evaluation of the impact of calorie labeling on McDonald’s restaurant menus: a natural experiment. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act 16 , 99 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-019-0865-7

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The history of the global fast food company started with two brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opening the very first McDonald’s restaurant in California, USA in 1940. Franchising began for McDonald’s in 1953, and four restaurants were opened in the same year. The joining of Ray Kroc in 1954 proved to be a turning point for the company and McDonald’s began franchising their restaurant outside of their hometown as well.

The sale of 100 millionth hamburger for McDonald’s in 1958 was followed by the opening of 100 th restaurant the year after. Ray Kroc buys McDonald’s from founding brothers in 1961 and after two years the company sells its billionth hamburger and opens its 500 th franchise in Ohio. Initial overseas McDonald’s opened in Canada and Puerto Rico in 1970. In 1971 McDonald’s expanded to Japan, Netherlands, Germany and Australia. McDonald’s revenues reached $1 billion and 2000 th restaurant opened in 1972. And it was followed by the invention of Quarter Pounder and Egg McMuffin and opening franchise in Stockholm. The years of 1974 and 1975 witnessed the expansion of McDonald’s to the United Kingdom, opening of the first Ronald McDonald House and introduction of Drive-Thru. Also, the company expanded to Japan and Singapore and Happy Meal was introduced during the remaining part of the 1970’s.

During 1980’s McChicken sandwich and Chicken McNuggets were introduced and restaurants were opened in Philippines, Malaysia, Italy, Mexico, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, Budapest and Hungary. McDonald’s continued worldwide expansion during 1990’s opening shops in Moscow, China, Africa, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Belarus, Peru, India and Georgia.

Difficult time began for McDonald’s in 2000’s starting with the launch of a book called Fast Food Nation written in 2001 by Eric Schlosser which criticised McDonald’s for selling unhealthy food. It partially resulted in the first quarterly loss in company’s history in fall 2002. Global marketing campaign is initiated within company promoting healthier McDonald’s image with the slogan “I’m lovin’ it”

The company suffers more blows caused by the documentary Super Size Me, in which the director and star Morgan Spurlock proves that eating McDonald’s ass the time has bad consequences for a person’s health, and the company is forced to remove Supersize options from the menu. One of the changes the company undertook in 2006 was including nutritional information on all packaging for all products. New products – McSkillet burrito, Chicken Biscuit and the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich are introduced in 2008, together with new design for the food containers and a new menu board design. The practice of introducing new products continued in 2009 with the introduction of new versions of Angus Burgers – Angus Deluxe, Angus Bacon and Cheese and Angus Mushroom and Swiss.

The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in UK in 1974 and since then, due to efficient strategy, flexibility and intense marketing strategy the brand has become a part of British culture. McDonald’s has 1193 outlets in UK, which sales rose 11 per cent in 2009 (Hall, 2010). However, it was a successful year not only for McDonald’s, Domino’s pizza sales increased by 15%, sandwich chain Subway announced to open 600 new stores in UK and Ireland, and KFC fried chicken chain opening 300 new restaurants (Mirror, 2010) – all due to recent financial crisis. According to King (online, 2010), in 2008 and 2009 there were an estimated 130 million more customer store visits, which has contributed around £465 million to the company sales revenue. Also, King (online, 2010) attributes the success of the company to the replacement of American McDonald’s chief executive in Britain with British born Steve Easterbrook in 2006, which resulted in McDonald’s becoming more local in all parts of UK.

McDonald’s success in UK fast food market and worldwide can be partially explained by its management structure, which is hierarchical, with several layers of management and every employee has a clear idea about their role and responsibilities. Also, standardisation of all business processes has been taken to a high degree which saves time and resources in operations.

Fast food has firmly identified itself as part of British culture with McDonald’s leading the way. It has both positive and negative affects on the nation. The positive affects are that time can be saved during the day when consuming fast food, they don’t cost much money and can be found round the corner. Unfortunately, currently its negative affects prevail which are the facts that alarming number of UK population is overweight or obese due to regular fast food consumption and communication between family members, and friends are missing which were previously conducted over dinner table. Moreover, along with the increasing popularity of fast food chains like McDonald’s, the opposition to them is also increasing in forms of books, documentaries, movies, demonstrations etc. These oppositions sometimes are aimed at a specific brand, in other cases they are aimed at fast food industry in general. But, nevertheless the damage they are causing to companies like McDonald’s is overwhelming.

Companies operating in fast food industry in UK and worldwide in general and McDonald’s company in particular should behave proactively in order to guard their image against “attacks” from non-government organizations, individual people and others, who criticise the fast food industry and specific companies, in many cases justifiably for damaging the nation’s health. Being proactive means investing in research and development in order to invent menus containing the amount of fat and salt which is within the limits of healthy eating.

Hall, J, 22 January 2010, “McDonald’s creates 5,000 jobs in UK after record sales in 2009”, Telegraph, Accessed August 7, 2010. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7055643/McDonalds-creates-5000-jobs-in-UK-after-record-sales-in-2009.html
King, I, 2010, “McDonald’s: the world’s local restaurant”, The Sunday Times, Accessed August 10, 2010. Available at: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article7019741.ece

Fast Food and Obesity: A Study in a Local McDonald’s

How the fast food revolution established obesity as a primary concern in america., by iliana nguyen | staff writer | sq vol. 9 (2011-2012).

After smoking, obesity is the leading cause of mortality in the United States. This does not come as a surprise since obesity rates are higher than ever, with a staggering 33.8% of adults who are obese. Obesity statistics for children living in the U.S. are alarming as well, with approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 years characterized as obese. Obesity is determined through BMI (body mass index), a number that is calculated based on a person’s weight and height.

Childhood obesity is a serious issue because children who are obese are predisposed to have many health problems and diseases in their childhood and adulthood. Although many factors can contribute to obesity, the underlying cause of excessive weight gain is an imbalance of energy. This occurs when more calories are taken in through diet than expended through energy-consuming activities.

Kerri N. Boutelle, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, conducted a study to evaluate the nutritional quality of fast food purchased for children as well as the reasons for dining at the fast food restaurant.

Dr. Boutelle, who studies childhood obesity and nutrition, explains why she chose to concentrate on youth, stating, “One out of every three children is either overweight or obese. We focus on children because the majority of overweight children will become overweight adults, and we have an opportunity to intervene with children earlier.”

This is the first study published to evaluate the purchasing patterns of fast food for youth. Dr. Boutelle explains, “We were interested in studying fast food purchasing for families because it influences how children eat. We believe that educating parents may influence how they feed their children.”

The number of meals eaten away from home is believed to contribute to extra calorie consumption. Overweight children and adolescents consume more foods away from home compared to other children. Due to its low nutritional value, cheap cost, and large portion size, fast food and consequent consumption habits has been considered one of the factors contributing to the obesity epidemic. Since its introduction to the United States, fast food has risen in popularity to become a prominent role-player in the everyday diet of children. According to studies, about 30% of children report consuming fast food on a typical day.

Over the course of six weeks, 544 families were surveyed during lunch time at the McDonald’s located in the Rady’s Children Hospital in San Diego, California. Researchers approached families with children who looked between the ages of 2 and 18 years.

The families were asked to present their receipts and to complete a short survey after purchasing their food. Families were asked questions to explain their purchases: who each item was for, if items were shared, sizes ordered (small, medium, large), whether drinks were diet or regular, the type of combination meal purchased, if condiments were added, and lastly, if there were any changes made to their order. The age and gender of the person for whom the item was purchased as well as the reasons for dining at the McDonald’s were inquired about.

Answer choices included: convenience, cheap, adults liked the food, children liked the food, a reward for a hospital visit, hungry with no other options, kids wanted the toy, and that it is a usual place for lunch.

To analyze the data, children were divided into three groups based on their ages: 2 to 5 years old, 6 to 11 years old, and 12 to 18 years old. Researchers then determined the nutritional content of the meals purchased for the different age groups as well as how the meals relate to daily nutrition requirements.

On average, these meals contained a calorie count of 646 to 811 calories, which is 36% to 51% of the recommended daily calorie intake for youth. The children’s meals were found to be extremely high in sodium, with 866 to 1100 mg of sodium consumed per child.

Most popular foods purchased for youth were French fries, soda, chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, and hamburgers. A Happy Meal was purchased by a little more than half (53%) of the 490 youth. While McDonald’s does offer healthier options such as apple dippers, these choices were found to be less popular. The fruit and yogurt parfait, a heart-friendly option, demonstrated to be very unpopular, only purchased by 1.4% of the families. The top reasons for dining at McDonald’s were convenience and that the children enjoyed the food. About 50% of the families used fast food to reward their children for visiting the hospital. Surprisingly, 72% of adults reported that they liked eating the fast food.

Even though this study was conducted at one fast food location, Dr. Boutelle states, “I don’t think the results would have changed in other locations. What may have changed is what kinds of families participated in the study. We had a wide range of families in this study, so I think it applies to a wide variety of families.”

Significance

Childhood obesity is a life threatening condition because it significantly increases the chances of developing many health problems such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart attack, hypertension (high blood pressure), and various cancers. Childhood obesity may also lead to social, behavioral, and emotional problems. Obese children may suffer from low self-esteem, depression, and difficulty interacting with peers.

Not only do children need to be aware of what they put in their mouths, but college students need to maintain healthy food habits as well. Dr. Boutelle explains, “College students are at an increased risk for weight gain because it is the first time they are on their own and they get to make all the decisions regarding their food intake. There are many cues in the college environment to overeat, and it is very important for college students to understand the impact of calories from fast food or other sources on their weight.”

Many college students are no stranger to the dreaded “freshman fifteen” pounds gained during their first year of college from unhealthy eating habits. College students are free to eat whenever and whatever they want, even if this means devouring a tub of Ben & Jerry’s on a stressful day.

Also, a majority of college campuses are located near or contain a fast food restaurant where students can buy food at a low cost. Many of these fast food chains are open during late hours, which is perfect for the student that has a midnight craving. Fast food is also ideal for the penny pinching college student who is always on the go–quick food at an affordable cost.

However, college students need to be conscious of what they are putting in their mouths; what is best for their wallet is not necessary the best for their health, especially if it is a Big Mac which is high in sodium, high in calories, and has a low nutritional value. According to a study published in Pediatrics Journal, youth who consume fast food on a typical day consumed greater amounts of saturated fat, sodium, carbohydrate, and sugars and less dietary fiber than those who do not eat fast food.

Consuming fast food also reduces the amount of healthy food options eaten. Children who consume fast food tend to consume more sugar beverages and less milk, as well as fewer fruits and vegetables containing starch. Fruits and non-starchy vegetables are an important part of the daily diet because they contain low energy density and high fiber content, which may protect against excess weight gain. Fiber also plays a major factor in regulating digestion as well as preventing heart disease and colon cancer.

Consuming more than the recommended amount of sodium results in elevated blood pressure, which can increase the risk of many health problems. Blood pressure is the pressure of blood exerted against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps blood. When the body ingests sodium, this raises osmolarity (the measure of the amount of solutes in a solution) because the concentration of sodium has increased while the volume of fluid in the body remains the same. Vasopressin is secreted, which causes the kidneys to absorb water and increases the blood volume. This causes an increase in blood pressure since the heart has to work harder to push the increased blood volume throughout the body. High blood pressure results in the heart exerting a greater pressure upon the arteries, causing them to stretch and expand to allow blood to flow easier. Overstretching creates weak spots in the artery walls, causing them to become more prone to ruptures, which may possibly lead to a stroke or an aneurysm.

Also, congestive heart failure occurs when the heart muscle becomes worn out from working too hard to pump blood and, as a result, can no longer efficiently pump blood. Fast foods are high in cholesterol as well. Atherosclerosis occurs when the coronary arteries become harder and thicker from a buildup of plaque and cholesterol. This buildup causes blood flow to become severely reduced or completely cut off. If portions of plaque disperse into the bloodstream, oxygen transport to the brain and heart can be disrupted, potentially resulting in a stroke or heart attack. Trans-fats escalate the risk of developing heart disease by increasing LDL cholesterol while lowering HDL cholesterol levels. LDL, known as “bad cholesterol,” is responsible for plaque build-up in arteries. HDL cholesterol, or “good cholesterol,” travels through the bloodstream and removes LDL.

Eating large portions of energy-dense foods also play a factor in the obesity epidemic. Fast food restaurants are notorious for their “value meals,” which offers large portions at a low price. “Supersizing” is a widespread practice at many restaurants, which offers more food, such as a drink and a side dish, for a small additional cost. Recent studies have shown that greater portion size leads to greater intake and extra calories. When watching television or driving down the road, it is quite common to see some sort of advertisement or reference for a popular fast food chain. The fast food industry markets to children in hopes of fostering a fast food habit that will continue into adulthood. Therefore, it is important to realize the impact that fast food has on the daily diet of youth and its involvement in the obesity epidemic. However, does this mean that we should give up on eating at fast food joints entirely? Absolutely not. While hamburgers and chicken nuggets are tempting, some fast food restaurants do offer health conscious items such as the fruit and yogurt parfait or apple dippers. It is critical to keep in mind that moderation and variety are key for a balanced diet. According to the late Dr. Paul Saltman, “What makes food good or bad for you is volume, balance, and interaction. What you eat matters less than how much you eat, when you eat it, and what other foods you’re also eating.”

WRITTEN BY ILIANA NGUYEN. Iliana Nguyen is a Biochemistry and Cell Biology major from John Muir College. She will graduate in 2013.

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McDonald’s: Is the Fast Food Icon Reaching the Limits of Growth?

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McDonald’s is often considered the archetype of an American company. The present case study outlines how McDonald’s started its business in the United States before expanding abroad. It shows how the company stuck to its core ideas while being responsive to local differences and to changing environmental trends over time. The case study also discusses major challenges that McDonald’s faced and how the company reacted to them.

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A firm’s strategy is always linked in some way to its culture; and it is sometimes also shaped by its home country (culture).

Please describe the McDonald’s culture by referring to both elements of the concepta and the percepta level of culture.

Many people perceive McDonald’s as the archetype of an American firm. In your view, what are the typical characteristics of an American firm? How far does McDonald’s fulfil these characteristics?

Before developing a strategy, firms have to analyse their situation.

What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for McDonald’s in today’s U.S. market? Please use tools and frameworks that help you to analyse a firm as well as the macro environment and the micro environment.

How much may the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats differ in comparison to other countries? In a first step, please argue in general. In a second step, choose one country (other than the United States) to provide examples and back up your arguments.

Which recommendations would you give to McDonald’s for its future strategic development

in terms of the Ansoff strategies?

in terms of Porter’s competitive strategies?

in terms of internationalization strategies?

At the beginning of the century, McDonald’s solved its severe crisis by offering healthy food. However, salads and wraps never accounted for a large share of the revenues.

Do you find the changes that McDonald’s undertook in terms of offering healthier food as part of the ‘Plan to Win’ convincing? If so, do you think customers were convinced by them at the beginning of the century? Do they believe in the firm’s health consciousness nowadays?

If you think that the ‘Plan to Win’ was not convincing in the first place, why did it save the company?

Please note that, for some of the questions, the case study is only a starting point. You will have to search for additional information to answer the questions.

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Schmid, S., Gombert, A. (2018). McDonald’s: Is the Fast Food Icon Reaching the Limits of Growth?. In: Schmid, S. (eds) Internationalization of Business. MIR Series in International Business. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74089-8_7

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An illustration of the McDonald’s Golden Arches sign rendered to look like an infinity symbol.

Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War

“Super Size Me” helped lead a backlash against McDonald’s. Twenty years on, the industry is bigger than ever.

Credit... Ben Wiseman

Supported by

By Brian Gallagher

May 12, 2024

The camera zooms in on a large woman, sitting on a cooler at the beach. It cuts to a shirtless man, also quite large, his face blurred out. The next shot shows another overweight man, sitting on a beach towel with plastic grocery bags arrayed in front of him.

“America has now become the fattest nation in the world. Congratulations,” a voice narrates. “Nearly 100 million Americans are today either overweight or obese.” At the end of this soliloquy, the opening credits roll — accompanied by Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls.”

So begins “ Super Size Me ,” which was released 20 years ago this month.

Directed by and starring Morgan Spurlock, the bootstrapped, lo-fi documentary was a smash hit, grossing more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget. Following Mr. Spurlock as he ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days — and the ill effects that diet had on his health — the film became the high-water mark in a tide of sentiment against fast food. McDonald’s, specifically, became a symbol for the glossy hegemony of American capitalism both at home and abroad.

A film still of a man in a blue collared shirt sitting at a table with various items from McDonald’s in front of him.

“McJobs” became a term for low-paying, dead-end positions, “McMansions” for garish, oversize houses. In 1992, the political theorist Benjamin Barber used the term “McWorld” as shorthand for emergent neoliberal dominance; seven years later, protesters against the World Trade Organization seemed to agree, launching a newspaper box through a McDonald’s window during the “Battle of Seattle” marches.

Two years after that, Eric Schlosser’s “ Fast Food Nation ” was published. A broad indictment of the entire fast-food industry, the best seller accused the industry of being bad for the environment, rife with labor issues, culturally flattening and culinarily fattening.

That last point was the primary focus for Mr. Spurlock’s stunt. Awareness was raised, alarms were sounded and nightly news segments ensued. Six weeks after the film’s release, McDonald’s discontinued its Super Size menu, though a company spokesman said at the time that the film had “nothing to do with that whatsoever.”

It would have been easy to call the cultural moment a brand crisis for fast food.

But two decades later, not only is McDonald’s bigger than ever, with nearly 42,000 global locations, but fast food in general has boomed. There are now some 40 chains with more than 500 locations in the United States. Fast food is the second-largest private employment sector in the country, after hospitals, and 36 percent of Americans — about 84 million people — eat fast food on any given day. The three major appeals of fast food remain intact: It’s cheap, it’s convenient and people like the way it tastes.

“I used to own shares of McDonald’s,” said Jay Zagorsky , a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business who has studied fast food in America. “Around the time of ‘Super Size Me,’ I sold off the shares, and now I’m saying to myself why? That was one of the greatest stocks.”

He’s right. The stock price of McDonald’s hit an all-time high in January, and has gone up nearly 1,000 percent since “Super Size Me” came out — nearly twice the return of the S&P 500.

While the sector’s financial performance was largely unaffected, there was a very real image problem, to the point that fast-food companies were compared to Big Tobacco . A big part of that problem had to do with children, who were seen not as informed consumers but rather as victims of their parents’ choices, the industry’s predatory advertising, or both. In fact, the inspiration for “Super Size Me” was a lawsuit filed by two New York City parents against McDonald’s, claiming that the company’s food had made their children severely obese.

In the end, the chains handled the brand crisis with the very tool — their most powerful — that had caused the problem in the first place: marketing.

‘Stop Listening to the Haters’

Historically, fast-food companies have been very astute about marketing to children, realizing decades ago that creating customers early means creating customers for life. At the peak of his fame in the 1980s, Ronald McDonald was in some countries more recognizable to children than Mickey Mouse. In 2000, 90 percent of children ages 6 to 9 visited a McDonald’s in a given month.

But as Frances Fleming-Milici, the director of marketing initiatives at the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health, put it, “If it’s marketed to children, it’s probably bad for you.”

That became increasingly clear in the mid-2000s. Childhood obesity rates had nearly tripled in 25 years, and the public outcry was growing more urgent. A consortium of large food brands, including McDonald’s, Burger King, PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, tried to get out in front of the problem. They formed the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative , and the participating corporations self-imposed limits on advertising to children under 13 (later 12).

In place of that marketing to children, though, the big fast-food chains have found something arguably more potent, with McDonald’s, as ever, leading the way.

“They’re hyperfocusing on what they call fan-favorite moments, trying to essentially identify how we emotionally connect to McDonald’s,” said Kaitlin Ceckowski, who researches fast-food marketing strategies at Mintel, a market research agency. “What ‘human truths’ exist around their brand?”

That “human truths” idea — essentially, the genuine emotional resonance of eating McDonald’s — originated in part from Wieden+Kennedy and the Narrative Group, the two creative agencies that the chain hired in 2019 and 2020.

As W+K New York’s co-chief creative officer, Brandon Henderson, explained to AdAge in March, “When we first started with McDonald’s, they were hesitant to be themselves and had been listening to the haters since the ‘Super Size Me’ documentary. I think the big shift we gave them was to stop listening to the haters and listen to the fans.”

For the agencies, the lodestar of that strategy was the idea that “No matter who you are, everyone has a McDonald’s order.”

A Universal Experience

It turns out that years of saturating American childhood with fast food has paid real dividends. The 6-to-9-year-olds in that 2000 statistic are now younger millennials, among the group with the highest rate of fast-food consumption today. They have a lifetime of memories that connect them to fast-food brands, and to McDonald’s in particular.

All that needed to be done was to connect the power of that comfort and nostalgia to the power of celebrity. Fast food isn’t just cheap, accessible calories; it’s a universal experience. You’re eating the same fries as your idols.

That idea animated a 2020 Super Bowl ad that showed the McDonald’s orders of famous people both real (Kim Kardashian) and not (Dracula). That spot led, in turn, to a phenomenally successful campaign designed around the preferred orders of celebrities. The first of these, the Travis Scott menu, featured the go-to meal of the Houston rapper and doubled sales of Quarter Pounders in the first week. As a result, the market capitalization of McDonald’s went up by $10 billion.

Other chains have followed suit, with partnerships between Megan Thee Stallion and Popeyes, Ice Spice and Dunkin’, Justin Bieber and Tim Hortons, and Lil Nas X and Taco Bell, which named the pop star its “chief impact officer.”

“It’s not directly targeting children, but let’s be clear: The celebrity meals are for BTS, Travis Scott, Cardi B and J Balvin,” said Ms. Ceckowski. “These are people who resonate with younger audiences.”

They are also celebrities who resonate in particular with younger audiences of color, who tend to have higher rates of fast-food consumption than white consumers.

So while the vast majority of fast-food marketing is no longer aimed at children, per se — the ad budget expressly for kids’ meals and healthy menu items represents just 2 percent of the total spending — that only means that children are now going after the menu items they are seeing advertised. According to a Rudd Center study , this means they are simply ordering from the adult menu at a younger age.

In that same study, 20 percent of parents reported buying additional items for their children, which at Wendy’s could mean an order of fries to round out a meal that comes with apple slices, or at McDonald’s a soda to accompany a Happy Meal that now features only milk.

“If you look at where they put their ad dollars, it’s really just the highest-calorie items,” Ms. Fleming-Milici said. “These healthier menu items appear to be a bit of a public relations effort.”

In the age of social media, brands don’t even have to advertise expressly to children anyway, in the way they might have in the past, by buying a slot during Saturday-morning cartoons or on Nickelodeon. On TikTok and Instagram, kids of all ages see the same content we all do.

Younger people are also making content of their own, getting in on the marketing campaigns with thousands of videos of themselves ordering, unwrapping, eating — a sort of advertising Amway .

‘A Form of Civic Participation’

We may be living in a new era of social-media-driven viral marketing in the palms of millennial hands, but what hasn’t really changed is the food.

The Wendy’s Baconator, for instance, was introduced in 2007, three years after “Super Size Me” came out, and it remains one of the chain’s most popular items. A protein conglomeration of a half-pound of beef, six pieces of bacon and two slices of cheese, each burger delivers 1,010 calories and 67 grams of fat.

Burger King offers a triple Whopper, which carries similar nutritional values, even without the optional bacon and cheese. And at Chipotle, a brand often held up as evidence of healthier fast-food tastes, a standard chicken burrito can easily contain 1,100 calories. The classic Big Mac remains basically intact, at a relatively tame 590 calories.

There are still efforts to steer Americans, particularly American children, away from these options. In April, Senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Peter Welch introduced the Childhood Diabetes Reduction Act , which would ban advertising junk food to children and require stronger health and nutrition warning labels. The law “would take on the greed of the food and beverage industry and address the growing diabetes and obesity epidemics negatively impacting millions of American children and families across the country,” according to a news release from Mr. Sanders.

Fast food may be a tough habit to legislate away, though. In 2016, 91 percent of parents reported buying lunch or dinner for their child in the past week from one of the four biggest chains — a significant increase compared with the 79 percent who did in 2010 and the 83 percent in 2013.

The problem may be that while we are often scolded for eating at these restaurants, we are more often encouraged. There is a vast network of enticement — from huge marketing budgets, to family traditions, to just the tastiness of the meals — that pushes diners toward the drive-through.

In its harsh depiction of American obesity, “Super Size Me” seemed to judge individuals for their failure to resist that machine. But according to Virgie Tovar , who has written books about weight discrimination, that’s an unfair indictment — especially when applied to consumers for whom a trip to McDonald’s might well offer the most accessible version of the American dream.

“People in my generation, and certainly Gen Z, probably aren’t going to be homeowners,” Ms. Tovar said. “Job insecurity is really high. All these markers of what it means to be a successful American are increasingly inaccessible to these younger generations. And I think about the things that are : They’re these cheaper consumer goods, and some of them are food.”

Eating McDonald’s, she said, should be seen as “a form of civic participation — whether we want to admit it or not.”

Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .

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McDonald's plans $5 value meal. Hold my Frosty, Wendy's says, announcing $3 breakfast meal

Are the fast-food wars heating up? A new front over the cost of value meals might have opened recently.

Just days after reports surfaced that fast-food giant McDonald's is planning a $5 value meal promotion in June, Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's has returned fire with a $3 breakfast meal.

Here's what to know.

McDonald's planning limited-time $5 value meal, adds Grandma McFlurry

McDonald's value meal will include a McChicken or McDouble, four-piece chicken nuggets, fries and a drink for $5, CNBC reports . The promotion will run for about a month, beginning June 25.

CNBC reports McDonald's U.S. same-store results slightly missed expectations in its mixed first-quarter results. Consumers are cutting their spending amid higher prices and rising interest rates, CNBC reports . The promotion comes at a time when restaurants similar to McDonald's are starting to feel the cuts.

Also, McDonald's new Grandma McFlurry dropped Tuesday at restaurants nationwide, USA TODAY reports . McDonald’s has stayed quiet about the flavor, stating it is made with “delicious syrup and chopped candy pieces.” Distractify reports the new McFlurry "tastes like nostalgia." Author Allison DeGrushe believes the syrup to be caramel and the candy either butterscotch or hard caramels.

The fast food giant is also giving away free six-piece McNuggets Wednesday on orders through the app.

Restaurant Business speculates whether McDonald's value meal move could intensify a fast-food price war this summer as restaurants try to draw customers.

And the publication might be right, with Wendy's being quick to answer.

Wendy's announces $3 breakfast meal, new sausage breakfast burrito

On Monday, Wendy's announced a $3 breakfast value meal, including seasoned potatoes and the choice of a Bacon, Egg & Cheese English Muffin or a Sausage, Egg & Cheese English Muffin, according to a press release . The value meal was available immediately.

Wendy's also announced it is adding a Sausage Breakfast Burrito at participating locations. The new item, inspired by the Bacon Breakfast Burrito launched earlier this year, includes a sausage patty, eggs, seasoned potatoes, American cheese and cheese sauce wrapped in a tortilla, according to the release. Hot sauce packets will be available for customers looking for a bit more bite.

As part of the new breakfast burrito's launch, Wendy's is offering $5 off a breakfast order of $12 or more for DoorDash members when it includes a bacon or sausage breakfast burrito. The discount is valid from May 31 to June 6, while supplies last.

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20 fascinating facts about McDonald’s

McDonald’s is not just a fast food restaurant, it’s a global force to be reckoned with. And this little burger joint didn’t go from humble beginnings to dominating the world without some interesting stories along the way, as well as some other compelling tidbits about the founders, the food, and popularity. We think you’ll flip over these 20 fascinating facts about McDonald’s.

McDonald’s is not the oldest burger chain

The very first McDonald’s restaurant was opened by the McDonald Brothers in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. Even though that was over 80 years ago, there are still older burger chains! White Castle—founded in 1921—is credited as being the first hamburger chain, but the first A&W restaurant started serving root beer and burgers in 1923 (although it originated as a stand that opened four years prior).

The first location still exists…sort of

Ronald and Maurice McDonald’s first restaurant was located at 1398 North E Street at West 14th Street in San Bernardino. In 1953, 13 years after it opened, that location was demolished in order to construct a building more fitting with McDonald’s image. However, because the brothers had sold the name to Ray Kroc, it had to be called “The Big M.” It went out of business less than 20 years later, but the sign still stands outside of what is now a privately-owned McDonald’s museum.

Ray Kroc’s was 52 when he discovered McDonald’s

You might picture Ray Kroc—the guy who launched McDonald’s to superstar status—as a young go-getter, but that wasn’t the case. Kroc was 52 years old when he first became acquainted with the restaurant in 1954; 53 when he opened his first location in Des Plaines, Illinois; and 59 when he bought the company. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Kroc was a milkshake machine salesman—he actually found out about McDonald’s after selling them eight Multi-Mixers. A replica of Kroc’s first restaurant was later built in Des Plaines.

Ray Kroc had a very famous friend

When Ray Kroc started franchising McDonald’s restaurants, he reached out to a famous friend with a business offer. Kroc’s friend was then a very wealthy man, but Ray originally met him when the two were teenagers in the ambulance corps during World War II. Kroc knew him as the guy who was always doodling in his free time, and the rest of the world would eventually know him as the founder of Disney, Walt Disney. A deal between the two would have meant a McDonald’s opening up in Disneyland, but it never came to fruition, as Disney reportedly wanted more of a markup than Kroc was willing to allow.

Religion is the reason for the Filet-O-Fish

A Cincinnati franchisee was tired of losing sales during lent—when many Catholics abstain from meat on Fridays—and decided to invent a new sandwich. The Filet-O-Fish was introduced in 1962, and it’s been on the menu ever since. (The only difference is that it was initially made with halibut, then cod for several decades, and now Marine Stewardship Council-certified wild-caught Alaska Pollock.)

McDonald’s is the largest restaurant chain

This probably comes as no surprise to you: McDonald’s is the largest restaurant chain in the world. Their website officially lists “more than 36,000 locations in more than 100 countries,” but more accurate estimates place the number closer to 40,000. Wondering about second place? That spot belongs to Subway.

69 million people eat at McDonald’s each day

McDonald’s is so popular and so omnipresent that about 69 million people eat at McDonald’s every day—more than the populations of countries like Italy, France, and England! In America alone, 45 million people eat McDonald’s daily, and according to the company’s research, 90% of Americans will eat there at least once a year, and 33% will eat there once a month.

Only four African countries have McDonald’s

Out of the 40,000 locations worldwide, fewer than 400 are in Africa. In fact, only four of the 54 African nations have at least one McDonald’s restaurant: Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, and South Africa.

Americans are never more than 115 miles from a McDonald’s

Have you ever wondered where the nearest McDonald’s is? If you’re in the U.S., the answer is no more than 115 miles. America has more than 13,000 McDonald’s locations dispersed across all 50 states, so if you crave a Big Mac, you can usually get one in under two hours.

Different colored arches exist

It’s rare, but a few McDonald’s locations around the world have arches that are colored something other than gold. This includes white arches at one Paris location, turquoise arches in Sedona, Arizona; black arches in Monterey, California; and red arches in Rockland, California.

Some McDonald’s only have a single arch

Once upon a time, the McDonald’s logo only had a single arch. In 1961, Ray Kroc trademarked the name “McDonald’s” and also a new logo with not one but two golden arches. There are still about a dozen locations in the U.S. still rocking the single-arch logo!

McDonald’s locations come in all shapes & sizes

You’ve probably seen McDonald’s in a mall, in an airport, as a storefront, and as a standalone restaurant, but there are many more unique locations out there. In Freeport, Maine, McDonald’s is housed in a colonial mansion that’s more than 170 years old. Another McDonald’s in a mansion in Hyde Park, New York, is more than 200 years old! The McDonald’s in Roswell, New Mexico, is in a UFO-shaped building. But our favorite is located in New Zealand—that one has seating inside an airplane!

The Queen of England owned a McDonald’s

If you think the McDonald’s mansions are fancy, get this: The Queen of England opened a McDonald’s in 2015! Okay, the late Queen Elizabeth II didn’t actually open it herself (although that would have been an entertaining ribbon-cutting ceremony), but the super-posh restaurant at the Banbury Gateway Shopping Park in Oxfordshire sits on land that’s part of the $34 billion Crown Estate, meaning she did, technically, own it. With the Queen’s passing, we assume Charles III is now the proprietor, making him the Burger King.

McDonald’s is the largest toy distributor

With 20% of meals sold at McDonald’s containing a toy—about 5,000 Happy Meals a minute, according to one figure—that adds up to about 1.5 billion toys sold globally every year. This makes McDonald’s the largest toy distributor in the world, meaning they sell even more than toy brands like Hasbro and Mattel.

The McNuggets have names

You might think every McDonald’s McNugget is special, like a greasy little meat snowflake, but they actually come in distinct shapes. For quality control reasons, McDonald’s chooses to limit the shape options to four, and the company even has internal names for them: the boot, the bone, the bell, and the ball.

Coke tastes better at McDonald’s

It’s not your imagination: Coca-Cola really does taste better at McDonald’s. It’s not just because the syrup and carbonated water combine in the restaurant—you can get that at any place with a soda fountain—but because the syrup is shipped to McDonald’s in stainless steel containers instead of the traditional plastic bags.

There’s a gold McDonald’s card that grants the holder free food for life

It was once just a legend, but its existence has since been confirmed: There’s a McDonald’s Gold Card that is worth a lifetime of free McDonald’s food. Only a few people are known to have these elusive cards, and of course, they’re all rich people who can already afford all the McDonald’s they want, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Rob Lowe.

McDonald’s once owned 90% of Chipotle

Back in 1998, McDonald’s invested in a small chain of 14 Mexican restaurants called Chipotle. McDonald’s helped grow the chain to 500 restaurants in about seven years—and ended up owning 90% of the company—but saw the new venture as a distraction and sold its shares. Chipotle took off soon after and now has more than 3,000 locations nationwide.

McDonald’s has a training facility called Hamburger University

This sounds totally made up, but McDonald’s actually does operate a training facility called Hamburger University. It was originally located in one of the restaurant’s basements but is now housed in a fancy complex on the site that used to be Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios. There are also campuses in other countries!

McSpaghetti is actually [still] a thing

Before we get to the “still” part, we think some of you will be surprised just to know that McSpaghetti ever existed. This menu option—which consisted of spaghetti topped with marinara sauce, meatballs, and shredded cheese—was introduced in the ‘70s and lasted less than a decade before being discontinued. However, you can still get it in at least two places: Orlando, Florida (at the largest McDonald’s in the country) and the Philippines, where spaghetti and McDonald’s are both quite popular.

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McDonald's Customers Are Not Lovin' a Major Change Coming to Restaurants: 'McRipoff'

Big Mac combo with drink

Ba da ba ba ba—customers are absolutely not lovin’ the latest update coming out of McDonald’s headquarters.

In late 2023, the chain announced that it would be removing self-serve drink machines—first introduced in 2004 to make the dining experience easier for patrons—by 2032.

According to a Marketplace report , many reasons were listed behind the decision, noting theft, space, and an emphasis on creating a “relaxed dine-in experience.”

At the time, the chain also announced it would be phasing out another fan-favorite perk, with some Golden Arches locations no longer offering free refills.

While many saw the decision as a major blow to longtime customers, a rep for the fast food chain assured Business Insider that the now-over-the-counter refills would remain “at the discretion of individual restaurant owner/operators,” however, that wasn’t enough to put customers at ease.

Fans of the chain took to social media, including Reddit , to vent their frustrations, filing the news under the category, “McRipoff.”

“They raised prices, shrunk serving sizes, skimp on burgers, and now this. Please everyone stop going to McDonald's," one fan commented. Although, one might argue that it’s contradictory to the chain’s plans to introduce the biggest burger ever , along with the limited-time $5 value meal plan launching in June to lure in lower-income customers.

“Seriously, this is such a bad idea. This is a huge reason i would choose mcdonalds over another option. Shooting themselves in the foot with this one,” another Redditor noted, as someone questioned, “How do they go from 1 dollar any size to this.”

“Soda is so cheap I cannot see the logic behind this,” a third lamented, as many pointed out it's the "least expensive overhead, highest margin thing they offer."

A handful simply chalked it up to corporate “greed.”

However, others pointed out that the outrage wasn’t warranted as “Corporate is letting individual stores decide. McDonald's isn't unilaterally getting rid of them.”

Others admitted that they couldn’t remember the last time they stepped foot in a restaurant—opting to order from the app or drive-thru instead—so they never benefited from additional refills in the first place. Meanwhile, many from outside the U.S. questioned the need for free refills, noting it was not common practice in other countries.

The chain recently saw plenty of pushback when it came to menu prices, specifically, changes to its famous Dollar Menu , which advertises $1, $2 and $3 items.

One fan pointed out on TikTok that their local McDonald's location didn't include any items actually priced at $1, with the cheapest options on the menu being a McChicken and small French fries, priced at $1.99 apiece.

While McDonald’s may have ruffled some feathers with its refill decision, there are plenty of menu makeovers to get customers excited, including the latest dessert addition—the Grandma McFlurry.

The fast food chain also delighted with the return of some highly-anticipated items such as the McCafé Oreo Frappé , Spicy Chicken McNuggets and the beloved Breakfast Bagels.

McDonald’s even dabbled with some new items while launching the Remix Menu , presenting a collection of items featuring popular mash-ups with a twist and a brand-new partnership with Krispy Kreme .

Next: So *That's* Why Coke Tastes So Much Better at McDonald's

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Is McDonald's nixing free refills? Here's what to know as chain phases out self-serve drink machines

McDonald's is nixing self-serve beverage stations from its U.S. fast-food restaurants, and some locations may soon begin charging for refills.

The fast-food chain announced plans last year to slowly remove the machines, with a goal of eliminating them from all stores by 2032 . Some Golden Arches franchise holders have already begun the transition away from self-serve drinks, the State Journal Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported last year.

Now, McDonald's says you may encounter charges for drink refills, depending on which location you go to.

Individual franchisees will decide whether their restaurant will charge for refills, the company confirmed to USA TODAY via email Tuesday.

The company's motivation for doing away with self-serve machines is to foster a consistent experience across all methods of ordering − delivery, mobile, kiosk, drive-thru or dine-in, the company previously said.

How risky is that drink? 'Overlooked' problem of bacteria in fast-food soda fountains.

Some McDonald's have already eliminated self-serve drink stations

For now, customers who visit most locations can still pour their own drinks and top them off, but some stores have already have begun the transition.

“It’s an evolution towards convenience and (the result of) the growth of digital service,” Mikel Petro, who operates more than a dozen McDonald’s in central Illinois , previously told the USA TODAY Network.

Last fall, one of Petro’s locations in Lincoln − about 35 miles northeast of the state capital Springfield − had crew members fill dine-in customers’ initial soft drink order and deliver it to the table along with their meal.

At that time, Petro said, remodel project at that store was slated to start in October to install a behind-the-counter drink station for crew members to fill drinks.

Announcement comes after McDonalds pledged to focus on affordability

According to its website, the company has more than 38,000 locations worldwide and employs more than 2 million people globally.

The move comes after the fast-food mogul announced it planned to focus on affordability after soaring prices drove some customers away.

The uptick in cost in recent years resulted in less revenue from low-income customers and reduced foot traffic in stores. As a result, Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski said in a late April first-quarter earnings call that McDonald's has to be "laser focused on affordability."

In May, the company promised to lower prices and said it would explore additional ways to win customers back.

Best times to travel for holiday: AAA forecasts nearly 44M travelers for Memorial Day weekend

'McDonald's has lost its mind'

The announcement to eliminate self-serve drink stations and potentially charge for refills drew swift reaction on social media.

"McDonald's made over $25 billion in profits this year, but they're charging for soda refills. Absurd," one X user posted.

Another person posted on X, "Beef patties now smaller than bun, cost is equal to nicer restaurant, would get more food elsewhere for that cost, refills for even more money you wouldn't spend elsewhere. McDonald's has lost it's mind."

Some users reported their local McD's do not have self-serve drink stations or have not had them for for a while.

"My local McDonald's stopped free refills years ago," one person posted on X.

"One of our local McDonald's doesn't have a drink machine in the restuarant, you have to ask for refills at the counter," another person posted on the social media site.

Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Gabe Hauari and Natalie Morris

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.

McDonald's Cooperating With Chinese Regulator After Reported Food Issues

FILE PHOTO: A sign is seen at a McDonald's restaurant in Queens, New York, U.S., March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

BEIJING (Reuters) - McDonald's is actively cooperating with the Chinese local market regulator to investigate and verify matters related to food issues, the company said on its Chinese website on Monday.

"We apologize for the impact from the restaurants involved. We are duty-bound to further strengthen the implementation and enforcement of the restaurants' code of practice," it said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ella Cao and Ryan Woo; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Tags: United States , Asia

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Wendy's joins McDonald's in announcing a new value meal as the fast food wars heat up

Wendy's is introducing a new $3 breakfast combo meal.
Diners have been increasingly frustrated with high fast food prices since the pandemic.
Rival chain McDonald's has also launched a new low-price offering.

Wendy's has launched a new $3 breakfast combo meal, as high fast-food prices have started to push customers away.

Customers can pair a small portion of seasoned potatoes with a choice between two breakfast muffins — a bacon, egg, and cheese English muffin or a sausage, egg, and cheese English muffin, the company said . The deal is on offer for a limited period.

This new lower-price offering comes as customers are increasingly frustrated by rising fast-food prices .

Watch: We bought all the fast-food chicken sandwiches in the US and UK to compare the differences

Main content

COMMENTS

Mcdonald's Users' Perceptions Of Health And Nutrition, Quality, And
The next largest participant frequency included 172 participants (28.3%) who visited a. McDonald's establishment a "few times per month", and 103 participants (17.0%) who visited "once a month". The lowest visit frequency to McDonald's (15.7%) was "one or more times per. week, or every day or more than once per day.".
Fast and Pluribus: Impacts of a Globalizing McDonald's
The connection between globalization and McDonald's is a tale of scholarly metonymy. There's no textual shortage of evidence that references the now-global fast food chain's success in other countries, often linking it to themes of self-sufficiency, post-industrial stability, and democracy-formed capitalism.. Among these chunks of research is a more endogenous angle that examines the ...
Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour: A Case of McDonald's
The purpose of this research is to examine the elements that affect the behaviour of consumer in the fast-food industry (McDonald's). It also aims to investigate how McDonald's responds to alter ...
PDF Making a Case for McDonald's: A Qualitative Case Study Examining the
providing information behind their food. McDonald's realized misperceptions existed about its products, product pack-aging, food quality, and food production and wanted the opportunity to answer questions about its food and production practices (Jarboe, 2015). A social media campaign was developed as company researchers found these "myths were
McDonald's
McDonald's golden arches have become a familiar sight all over the world, however, the fast food giant accounted for by far the largest share of restaurants in its home country, the United States ...
Comparing McDonald's food marketing practices on official Instagram
We collected data from September 2019 to April 2020, and the Instagram posts were gathered from September to December 2019. We used McDonald's corporate website to generate a list of all the countries with McDonald's fast food chains (see figure 1 for flow chart). We then made a list of all official McDonald's Instagram accounts for each ...
Evaluation of the impact of calorie labeling on McDonald's restaurant
The long-term effect of calorie labeling on fast-food purchases is unclear. McDonald's voluntarily labeled its menus with calories in 2012, providing an opportunity to evaluate this initiative on purchases. From 2010 to 2014, we collected receipts from and administered questionnaires to 2971 adults, 2164 adolescents, and 447 parents/guardians of school-age children during repeated visits to ...
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This case study focuses on different innovative practices embraced by a global fast food joint. McDonald‟s and it s repercussions on the overall brand image of the company. The case study ...
Unwrapping the McDonald's model: An introduction to dynamic social
The McDonald brothers entered the fast food business in 1937 after they observed the success of a hot dog cart across the street from where they worked. ... The lesson is not to imitate McDonald's but to integrate social research into institutions to improve people's ability to create better outcomes. Lindblom and Cohen argued that many ...
(PDF) A Case Study of Consumer Satisfaction That Leads to Loyalty
In the fast-food industry, MacDonald's is a pioneer. It has more than 35,000 restaurants across the globe in 121 countries. McDonald's serves a variety of fast foods.
McDonald's
June 16, 2012. McDonald's. The history of the global fast food company started with two brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opening the very first McDonald's restaurant in California, USA in 1940. Franchising began for McDonald's in 1953, and four restaurants were opened in the same year. The joining of Ray Kroc in 1954 proved to be a ...
Fast Food and Obesity: A Study in a Local McDonald's
The fruit and yogurt parfait, a heart-friendly option, demonstrated to be very unpopular, only purchased by 1.4% of the families. The top reasons for dining at McDonald's were convenience and that the children enjoyed the food. About 50% of the families used fast food to reward their children for visiting the hospital.
McDonald's on the insight that shifted its approach to trust
Traditionally, many of McDonald's food quality-focused campaigns saw farmers deliver the message. The most recent campaign, 'Keep Up With The Times', saw consumers deliver the message of food quality. This also helps to drive certainty, by conveying that McDonald's food quality is something widely known and that has existed for some time.
PDF 2022 2023 Our Purpose & Impact Progress Summary McDonald s Corporation
McDonald's Corporation. 2022-2023. Summary. . Our purpose is to feed and foster communities. As the leading global foodservice retailer, we believe it's our responsibility to make a positive impact on the world. We're driving that impact by living our purpose. The actions we continue to take today across our food, people, communities ...
Fast food from Domino's, McDonald's contained chemicals in plastics
The research includes items from McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Taco Bell and Chipotle locations in San Antonio, Texas. Researchers obtained 64 food samples of hamburgers, fries ...
Analysis on Marketing Segmentation of McDonald's
The research from McDonald's UK indicates that 36% of consumers eat McDonald's food because of its value. This 36% of respondents buy McDonald's food because they believe McDonald's products bring them great cost benefits . In addition, these consumers feel like McDonald's not only provides cheaper prices for its hamburgers, fries, and drinks ...
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1 An All-American Restaurant. The story of McDonald's starts in the 1940s, when Richard and Maurice McDonald, two brothers from Manchester, California, created a new concept for a fast food restaurant. 1 Their idea was to place simplicity and speed above everything else. The menu consisting of only nine items (hamburger, cheeseburger, chips ...
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But two decades later, not only is McDonald's bigger than ever, with nearly 42,000 global locations, but fast food in general has boomed. There are now some 40 chains with more than 500 ...
McDonald's Plans $5 Meal Promotion for June As Customer Spending Slows
McDonald's plans to launch a limited-time $5 meal. In first-quarter earnings, the company's leadership highlighted how inflation has affected customers. Other fast food chains are also worried ...
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McDonald's newest dessert, Grandma's McFlurry, is available now. Here's what it tastes like. McDonald's evoked memories of candies slipped to us by our grandmothers with the new Grandma's McFlurry.
McDonald's giving away free chicken nuggets: How to get them
The McDonald's app can be used to order food for pickup or delivery, track and earn points towards free items and view regularly-rotating coupons and specials, such as BOGO items and discounted meals.
(PDF) Factors: Responsible for McDonald's Performance
Abstract. In the fast-food industry, MacDonald's is a pioneer. It has more than 35,000 restaurants across the globe in 121 countries. McDonald's serves a variety of fast foods. For the average ...
Fast food is expensive. Applebee's and Chili's are moving in
McDonald's and other fast food chains are charging more.So much so that you may want to consider going for a slightly slower burger. Or at least, that's what Applebee's wants you to think about.
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Just days after reports surfaced that fast-food giant McDonald's is planning a $5 value meal promotion in June, Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy's has returned fire with a $3 breakfast meal.
20 fascinating facts about McDonald's
In America alone, 45 million people eat McDonald's daily, and according to the company's research, 90% of Americans will eat there at least once a year, and 33% will eat there once a month.
McDonald's new McFlurry is inspired by grandmothers
McDonald's newest McFlurry flavor is inspired by someone old: your grandmother. Beginning May 21, the chain is releasing for a limited time a "Grandma McFlurry," a sweet new treat that mixes ...
McDonald's Customers Are Not Lovin' a Major Change Coming to ...
Big Mac combo with drink. Ba da ba ba ba—customers are absolutely not lovin' the latest update coming out of McDonald's headquarters.. In late 2023, the chain announced that it would be ...
Can you still get free refills at McDonald's? Here's its policy
McDonald's is nixing self-serve beverage stations from its U.S. fast-food restaurants, and some locations may soon begin charging for refills. The fast-food chain announced plans last year to ...
McDonald's Cooperating With Chinese Regulator After Reported Food Issues
Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A sign is seen at a McDonald's restaurant in Queens, New York, U.S., March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
Wendy's Announces a $3 Breakfast Deal As the Fast Food Wars Heat up
Wendy's has launched a new $3 breakfast combo meal, as high fast-food prices have started to push customers away. Customers can pair a small portion of seasoned potatoes with a choice between two ...

Fast and Pluribus: Impacts of a Globalizing McDonald’s

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Fast Food Forever: How McHaters Lost the Culture War

‘Stop Listening to the Haters’

A Universal Experience

‘A Form of Civic Participation’

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