Brilliant McDonald's PR
According to the Chicago Tribune, McDonald's will allow six moms to investigate restaurants in the chain, work in the restaurant, and then blog about their experiences and their discoveries.
Who are these moms? I'll bet McDonald's didn't choose top-notch investigative journalists. While pundits quoted in the article say the move could backfire, I think McDonald's has come up with a brilliant idea. Let these women ask "pointed" questions, and then spin them a comfortable answer that they'll post for all their readers to see.
McDonald's will give them tours of the hamburger plant and apple orchards. How very open and transparent of them. I didn't see anything in the article about tours of pork farms for the bacon, slaughterhouses, or shantytowns where slaughterhouse workers live. Will they get to sit in on the meetings where the attendees discuss ways to make advertisements that get children into the restaurant? Will they get to look at the company's financials? And do you think McDonald's will let these women visit the plants and apple farms unannounced?
When I started to blog, and even when I started to write professionally, I found it hard to resist marketing spin. There's a reason none of my clients consider a P.R. person or a marketing rep a valid source. "Your wine won a gold medal? That's great!" "Oh! Alcohol levels don't matter because you balance the wine? Interesting." "You make your wine in the vineyard? That sounds reasonable." Everyone seems so sincere. Several years into this, I'll nod politely and groan inside when I decide not to call them on this pap: If it's not relevant to my article, I don't care what lies they want to tell me, but if it's part of the piece I know enough to ask pointed questions. (Some of my favorites: "So you weren't making balanced wines with low alcohol? Oh, you were? So why up the alcohol?" "Do you think they go well with food?" "If you make wine in the vineyard, why don't you use natural yeast?")
Will the McMoms fall prey to this spin? Maybe not. But six moms with who-knows-what backgrounds against a corporate giant with a well-funded and adept marketing group? My money's on the Golden Arches.
via Chow, which asks good questions about how deep the nutritional analysis will be.
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