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Lede Stevens
Professor Hopkins
Com 203 02
November 25, 2014
Advertising Research Paper
In reviewing many different companies and marketing techniques, the advertising
campaign I chose to focus on is the McDonalds Corporation. With various McDonald's
advertising campaigns and slogans created over the years, the company is one of the most
prevalent fast food advertisers, especially in the United States. Here, the campaign spends
the most advertising money of any fast-food restaurant, and is the fourth-most spender of
any advertiser in the country.
According to McDonald's Canada corporate website, the commercial campaigns
have always focused on the "overall McDonald's experience", rather than just product. In
addition, the goals of the commercials/images have always been intended to portray
warmth, casualty, and routine of every day life. Its TV ads strategically display numerous
people engaging in popular activities, which usually reflect the season and time period.
Finally, rarely in McDonald’s advertising history have they used negative or comparison
ads pertaining to any of their competitors; the ads have constantly focused on
McDonald's alone.
Created by Heye & Partner, and members of the DDB Worldwide
Communications Group, Inc., the “i'm lovin' it” slogan has become an international
branding campaign by McDonald's Corporation. This was the company's first global
advertising campaign and was launched in Munich, Germany on September 2, 2003.
Also, on September 3, 2003, McDonald's selected more than 30 individuals to appear in
new packaging for McDonald's products. Images of those chosen submitted a story and
digital photograph; indented to capture themes of inspiration, passion and fun, appeared
on McDonald's paper bags and cups worldwide.
As time continued, the campaign became outdated and dry. To address and fix
this issue McDonald's underwent the first phase of their new image and slogan: 'What
we're made of.' This was to promote how McDonald's products are made. In November
2008, McDonald's introduced new packaging, eliminating the previous design stated
above with new, inspirational messages. In addition, McDonald's also updated their menu
boards with darker yet warmer colors, as well as more realistic photos of the food and
drinks.
McDonald’s core consumer base is built upon children, business personnel and
fast-food lovers. With most of the traffic on social media followed by the younger
generation, social networking websites have become extremely popular. It has become
vital for the organizations like McDonald’s to establish their presence. Like many
advertisement campaigns, McDonald’s seeks to utilize aggressive media advertising as a
tool to promote its products. With the help of advertising tools including, print media,
electronic media, billboards, and television, the organization has successfully managed to
create a positive image of its brand.
The mouthwatering representation of food shown in advertisements not only
attracts its consumers, but also helps to keep them well informed about the new arrivals.
Media advertising is always favorable as it reinforces the existence of the organization
and also helps in persuading the consumers to buy. Along with these advertising
techniques and strategies, sales promotions are occasionally provided too. These are
typically short-termed or time specific strategies that are designed to attract the new
customers or to replenish the relationships with existing ones. The sales promotional
campaigns offer attractive deals, work on pricing and put forward new products.
McDonald's is one of the best-known brands worldwide. Through marketing,
McDonalds establishes a prominent position in the minds of customers and today’s
society. This is known as branding. Branding develops a personality for an organization,
product or service. The brand image represents how consumers view the organization.
McDonalds uses marketing communication methods, such as advertising and promotions,
to create colors, designs and images that give the brand its recognizable face. The Golden
Arches would be a suitable representation of this method. Creating this familiar logo by a
company creates loyal customers.
However, on an ethical note, although McDonald’s displays efforts to support
children with life threatening illnesses, the diet offered by this corporation contributes to
obesity, heart disease, and asthma. This rises an ethical questioning to the corporation as
a whole. Another ethical concern is McDonald’s role in the environment. “Unlike a fresh
ground beef patty at a local butcher shop, a typical fast-food hamburger patty contains
meat from more than one thousand different cattle, raised in as many as five countries”
(Schlosser, 2004). Similarly, instead of locally grown potatoes, McDonald’s uses its own
genetically modified potatoes. From a public health perspective, the use of beef from
multiple sources and genetically modified potatoes does not equal a healthy diet and
tends to correlate with health issues instead.
Aside from health issues, the company also has issues with its workers. The
corporation pays minimum wage to its workers, who do assembly line, factory-type
work. If the work done by burger manufacturers and drive-thru cashiers were reclassified
as factory work, that would add about 3.5 million manufacturing jobs to the U.S.
economy. “From a statistical point of view, it would make the U.S. seem like an
industrial powerhouse once again, instead of an ageing superpower threatened by lowcost competitors” (Schlosser, 2004).
Over the past four decades McDonald’s has been transformed from a local burger
shack serving fresh beef patties, into a huge corporation using mass production methods
and strategic advertising techniques to produce and sell their products. It can be
concluded that McDonalds has become as successful and well known as it is, due to its
multimillion-dollar investments in advertising and marketing it has made. This essay has
helped me to better understand the importance of branding and advertising. I believe
McDonalds to be extremely successful in todays marketing world and other corporations
can learn from their advertising methods. Although the organization does raise ethical
questions when it comes to the health of the diet they provide, it still remains thee top
fast-food chain worldwide.
References

"English | McDonalds.ca." English | McDonalds.ca. McDonalds, 2010. Web. 25
Nov. 2014. <http://www.mcdonalds.ca/ca/en.html>.

Pennino, M. (2006, October 19). Nuggets of wisdom; Author paints picture of out
fast-food culture. Intelligencer Journal. Retrieved March 2, 2006 from Lexis
Nexis.

Schlosser, E. (2004) Special report on slow food. In J. Johnson (Ed.), Global
Issues, Local Arguments. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Watson, J. L.(2006) China’s Big Mac attack. In J. Johnson (Ed.), Global Issues,
Local Arguments. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.