McDonald's public relations.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

PUBLIC RELATIONS (PRINCIPLES) 102

Assignment I

From McDonald’s perspective, identify the key publics the company should take into account in order to improve its performance on social responsibility. Give brief reasons for your answers.

In this section it will address the key publics involved and the remedial actions that

McDonald can initiate in order to improve its performance on social responsibility.

However, before pursuing it even further, the definition shall be provided for better understanding to the concept of public within the context of public relations and specifically the key publics of McDonald’s corporation.

Publics, according to Johnston and Zawawi are defined as any group of people who share interests and concerns. (2004, p.4). They further mention that Publics can be internal and external. An internal public is the group of public that exists within an organisation. These can be employees of an organisation, members of a group or club, or volunteers of a non-profit group. External publics are all others-including customers, community groups, lobby groups, the mass media, voters, competitors, legislators and other special interest groups.

Another required definition is social responsibility. Johnston and Zawawi states that to fulfill expectations and moral obligations at the level of society… social responsibilities, professionals are expected to do more than provide knowledge and skilled services; they are “held responsible for improving the institutions administering those services”(2004, p.146)

Knowing this, the first public to McDonald’s that should be addressed is the children and issues of obesity. The reason being is that there are cases in America of obese children suing McDonalds for their weight issues as mentioned by Condon, are one of the problems that have surfaced for McDonald’s.

However, Condon also mentions that McDonald’s should not take the whole blame for the obesity in children of McDonald’s because it is up to the parents to curb it

McDonald’s have also made efforts which are included in their recent press release (April 15, 2004) with regards to the issues of obesity that McDonald’s today unveiled an unprecedented, comprehensive balanced lifestyles platform to help address obesity in America and improve the nation’s overall physical well-being. McDonald’s multi-year plan, focusing on children and adults, promotes the importance of balance and includes significant efforts in the areas of food choices, physical activity and education.

With regard to advertisements and its influences to the children, McDonald’s has also addressed this issue with its advertisers, one of its key publics. As stated by Manchester News, The new adverts feature the chain's Ronald McDonald mascot, plus the Yums, characters "who live in everyone's tummy".

They use song and dance to promote four key messages to children and their parents: keep fit, eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, drink plenty of fluids and "not to have too many treats" (2004) Therefore by addressing this it is hoped that this should influence the children in their selection of food at McDonald’s.

Another key public that McDonald’s should focus on dealing with regards to improving their social responsibility is dieticians in other parts of the world where they have yet to address, since McDonald’s is already placing this into practice in Australia with their collaborations with the Food Group of Australia using canola oil, which promotes better health, that was developed by their other key publics The Food Group Australia and Goodman Fielder consumer Foods, adding items into their menus, salads plus, alternative Happy Meals to name a few (2004) all in the cause for better health and a balanced lifestyle, in ...

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McDonalds.com Australian site.

McDonalds should take into account is the environmentalists and vegetarians that have been making allegations against McDonalds with regards to the rearing and slaughtering of animals and their complaints about McDonald’s not being environmentally friendly. For example, McDonald’s USA curbed this by listing their alliances with credible companies and what they have done which is the usage of HFC refrigerators in their restaurants to increase their performance on social responsibility.

McDonald’s Canada site they have also stressed that if suppliers do not respect

McDonald’s rain forest policy they shall immediately discontinue them.

Morgan Spurlock is another key public that McDonald’s should address due to the fact that according to thefreedictionary.com, his documentary has caused negative publicity for McDonald's with suggestions that McDonald's food was contributing heavily to the rash of obesity in American society. Subsequent to the showing of the film at the , McDonald's phased out its Supersize meal option, though no link to the film was made in this decision. However McDonald’s sites have counter attacked this phenomenon with the availability of McDonald’s internet sites that contain information and one illustration of this is the United Kingdom site of McDonald’s with the article entitled a balanced diet, a balanced debate, especially catered to the issue of Super size me, McDonald’s provides other alternatives to eating with the variety in fruits and salads available, to their involvement to children charities and heightened awareness of societal needs in relation to encouraging healthy lifestyle through sponsoring of sports events being involved in which proves that there level of awareness has heightened with regard to social responsibility.

Using the four models of public relations as a framework (Grunig and Hunt 1984), provide and analysis of McDonald’s approach to its corporate communication in recent years. Do you believe there have been any significant changes over this period?

This section of the question shall list the definitions of the four models of public relations by Grunig and Hunt, and include examples and the changes that have been made in the past decade towards McDonald’s approach with regards to its corporate communication.

According to Johnston and Zawawi (2004, p.9),

Press Agentry Model

The press agentry model aims to ‘publicise the organisation, its products and its services in any way possible’.

Public Information Model

The public information model seeks to ‘disseminate information to the public as truthfully and accurately as possible’ through the usage of leaflets and posters for example.

Asymmetrical Model

To persuade the public to agree with the organisations’ point of view

Symmetrical Model

is utilized when an organisation wants to ‘develop a mutual understanding between the management of the organisation and the publics that the organisation affects’

According to McDonald’s Canada site, McDonalds has started publicising itself through advertisements during 1967 when they realized that local advertising would be insufficient to support a single identity therefore a percentage of sales would be generated to fund their international advertising campaigns. This is a form of press agentry model due to the form which is to publicise the organisation and with the case of McDonald’s, its services and food in any way possible. However, it was not until recently that McDonald’s started to apply the four models of public relations as a consequence of the issues that surface and the increase level of social awareness.

In the media release entitled Big mac make record cents for charity, they have invited celebrities, local VIPs, community and charity groups for their McHappy Day, another example of press agentry model.

An example of public information model is the distribution of nutrition leaflets available in all restaurants in Australia, according to their media release (March 31, 2004). From the very same media release, Sensory Solutions, Australia’s specialist food research agency did surveys regarding the nutrition information on the packaging, and as a result of this survey McDonald’s will start labelling their packaging with nutrition.

This is an example of symmetrical model where mutual understanding is created between the public and the organisation. An example of asymmetrical model would be the super size me issue, whereby after obtaining feedback from various organisations, McDonald’s added more items on the menu and reinforcing its wholesome goodness of their products through advertisements and debates located on the site entitled A balanced diet, a balanced debate. This is because according to Johnston and Zawawi, feedback is used ‘to determine what the publics’ attitudes are toward the organisation and how they might be changed’ (2004, p.9)

The changes that are evident here is through the dynamics of their method of communicating themselves towards their publics, from recurring changes of their advertising themes to the usage of different media to communicate to their consumers through the distribution of nutrition leaflets, posts on the internet to name a few.

Do you believe the film Super Size Me represents a serious public relations threat to McDonald’s? Is the company’s response likely to be effective? Give reasons for your answers.

For this section, it shall focus on introducing Super Size Me, what constitutes as a public relations threat, whether it represents as a serious public relations threat, and how the documentary has affected McDonald’s, including their response towards the phenomenon.

Morgan Spurlock, the director has made controversial waves through his release of the documentary entitled Super Size Me. In this documentary he conducted a 30 day experiment which as stated on the site Super Size Me,

During the journey, Spurlock also put his own body on the line, living on nothing but McDonald's for an entire month with three simple rules:

No options: he could only eat what was available over the counter (water included!)
No supersizing [sic] unless offered
No excuses: he had to eat every item on the menu at least once

McDonald’s USA states that

This movie is all about one individual’s decision to act irresponsibly by consuming more than 5,000 calories a day - - twice the recommended level for adult males - - and by purposely limiting his physical activity. That’s why this movie makes no contribution to the important dialogue taking place today on nutrition and balanced lifestyles.

Public relations is the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between and organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends.

Cutlip, Center and Broom (2000, p.6).

Whether or not Super size me is a serious threat depends on whether practice of public relations by McDonald’s has not complied with the definition. Specifically, if McDonalds has not been catering to the needs of its customers ever since the Super size me crisis, and that customers do not patron McDonald’s, and whether mutual benefits have not been created, only then can it be said to be a threat.

Super size me should not even be an issue, to Spurlock making complaints about him experiencing physical discomfort which includes internal and external physical tolls on his body in the form of increase in blood sugar and high blood pressure levels, one has to bear in mind that it was due to choice and that he has brought it upon himself. This was the point brought up by another film maker that chose to prove that one could still eat McDonald’s and still be healthy. This will be exercised by Soso Whaley where is stated in the site entitled competitive enterprise institute,

Whaley will document her experience of eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at McDonald’s for the month of April to dramatize the debate over public health and what has been termed America’s “obesity epidemic.” By making prudent menu choices, she will demonstrate that no one should blame the nation’s food purveyors for being overweight or unhealthy – even if fast food really were their only choice

So is Super Size Me really considered a threat? comments by McDonald’s USA were that their focus was still on their customers and not Super Size Me. They have stressed that their social responsibility with regards to their customers has still been upheld with the availability of variety in their menus and the attempts and conducts of continuously refreshing their menus to suit the needs of the community. Furthermore they stated that

McDonald’s has always been committed to playing a constructive, responsible role in developing solutions to our customers’ lifestyle needs – offering more menu variety, promoting physical activity, and supporting consumer education.

This is also evident in McDonald’s worldwide corporate responsibility report 2004 where they uphold the benefits of both their internal and external publics, creating mutual understanding and benefits between both parties hence it not being a serious public relations threat.

References:

A balanced diet, a balanced debate. Retrieved September 15, 2004 from http://www.supersizeme-thedebate.co.uk/

CEI Staff (March 31, 2004), Filmmaker to Challenge Fast Food Perceptions
Will Eat at McDonald’s for 30 Days and Lose Weight. For Newscenter@CEI. Retrieved September 20, 2004 from

Condon B., (November 22, 2002), McDonald’s sued by obese children. Retrieved September 13, 2004, from .

Cutlip M. Scott, Center H. Allen & Broom M. Glen (2000). Effective Public Relations, International Edition (8th ed.), Prentice Hall, Inc.

Johnston J, Zawawi C (2004). Public Relations Theory and Practice, (2nd ed.) Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW Australia.

McDonald’s advertising. A history of McDonald’s advertising themes. Retrieved September 19, 2004 from

McDonalds Press Release (April 29 2004), Media Statement: McDonald's Response to "Super Size Me" Movie. Retrieved September 18 2004 from http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/news/corppr/cpr_04292004.html

Manchester New (June 21, 2004), McDonald’s launches “healthy eating” children’s ads. Retrieved September 18, 2004, from

McDonald’s Corporate Responsibility Reports. Retrieved September 16, 2004 from http://mcdonalds.com/corp/values/socialrespons/sr_report.html

McDonald’s Australia Media releases.(September 8, 2004) McDonald’s leads the way with new canola oil. Retrieved September 15, 2004, from =

McDonald’s Australia Media releases. (May 10, 2003) Big Macs make record cents for charity. Retrieved September 15, 2004, from =

McDonald’s Australia Media releases. (March 31, 2004) McDonald’s set new benchmark for industry. Retrieved September 15, 2004, from =

McDonald’s Canada (September 6, 2004), Faqs. Retrieved September 19,2004, from .

McDonald’s Press Release (April 15, 2004), McDonald’s® Unveils Bold Balanced Lifestyles Platform, Multi-Year Effort Focused on Food Choice, Physical Activity and Education. Retrieved September 18, 2004, from

The free dictionary.com. (2004) Farlex Inc. McDonald’s corporation. Retrieved September 12, 2004, from http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/McDonald's%20Corporation

The McLibel trial story, Retrieved September 18, 2004, from

Super Size Me, Retrieved September 18, 2004, from