Cross-posted from “Too Bad, So Sad, Too Late - McDonald’s tells U.S. restaurants it’s not a ‘political brand’ after Trump visit” by @JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee in !news@beehaw.org
Excerpt:
Though President Donald Trump visited a Pennsylvania McDonald’s location on Sunday, the fast-food giant is trying to stay neutral in the presidential race.
“As we’ve seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation in this election cycle. While we’ve not sought this, it’s a testament to how much McDonald’s resonates with so many Americans. McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President,” the company said in an internal message viewed by CNBC and confirmed by a source familiar with the matter.
I haven’t eaten at a McDonalds since before covid, and I don’t really miss it.
It was probably a franchise owner that did it and corporate didn’t know till the rest of us.
Obviously fuck Sicky D’s, but I bet corporate is more pissed off than anyone else.
They did know beforehand, an AP article said as much:
This gives me a great reason to never eat at McDonald’s again.
That’s a hail-mary reframe for “piss-colored”.
Nearly had it, too.
Open doors to anyone, by closing them for anyone not pre approved to show up when Trump was there.
“- we are golden, like the shower”
Fixed that for them.
To be fair, they can’t stop a franchisee from being a dip shit - even though it is causing serious damage to the brand.
They can. They own the property as a requirement for franchising. If they don’t want it to happen they can deny the request and remove for trespassing anyone who doesn’t cooperate.
They could’ve theoretically played it that way, but they didn’t. They said they got the request and approved it.
Nope the corporate had to have been fully aware since there was a joke on SNL about his visit happening the next day. It was in the news that it was gonna happen and McDonald’s did nothing to stop it.
I think you’re confused.
Because I said they likely found out when everyone else did…
And you replied saying they found out…
When everyone else did?
Then there’s the part where I’d still need to explain how franchising works
McD’s might be unique in this regard, but they actually own the land the building is on for most franchises. So they’d have the authority to deny if they wanted to (at least in the standard agreement in the US).
This was well explained in the biopic, The Founder https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4276820/
Sadly, it makes sense that corporate would not deny it in this case - the store was going to be closed so there was no impact on business (as compared to the store being closed for a more typical reason), and they’d probably fear the public relations backlash after seeing “McD refuses to allow store to be borrowed by GOP/MAGA campaign”
Hah! I love how palpable you made your exasperation!
McDonalds is a franchise, local owners are separate entities from the franchise “parent”.
Plus, McDonalds is a huge company. They probably couldn’t move their massive legal machinery to respond in time to stop it. Even if they could they would probably have had to know which franchisee was doing it ahead of time, and also have to find something in the franchise agreement specifically they were violating.
In b4 McD’s changes the franchising agreement to require all events with media present to be approved by McD’s corp prior to the event.
I would be surprised if they don’t already have this
If they had done something to stop it, they would have been sued by the franchise owner who did nothing to violate the franchise agreement.
Which is interesting, because usually corporate has all the power in franchise agreements.
It is a difficult position to be in.
So the crazy makes a plan with a local franchise owner. Tells corporate he has already said yes. Even though they likely don’t want anything to do with it, as it is a no win situation for them, they are fucked either way.
They have the shit job of saying no one of the most petty people in the world; who may be the next president. He could tell his cult to avoid McD’s because they snubbed him etc…so now it is either piss off the MAGA crowd, quite possibly their biggest market, or piss off the dems…
McD’s is not great food, but it isn’t terrible either. I don’t envy the higher ups having to make this situation palatable.
Their statement is pretty good though.
This is basically saying even though he is a criminal, we would still give him a chance. That is a dem dog-whistle if ever I saw one.
They could have made their “we’re not political” announcement the day after it was announced, instead of after the event already happened.