Attack On McDonald's Position Reinforces McDonald's Position

Looks like it's good cop bad cop in the war against fast food brands. First, First Lady Michelle Obama politely insisted that America’s restaurant operators do more for their role in contributing to childhood obesity. Now, a vegetarian group is launching a campaign accusing McDonald's of killing people with its food by causing heart disease. The commercial ends with a McDonald's logo and the tagline pun "I was loving' it." You can watch the commercial above.

Do groups like this really think these kind of commercials ever reach the intended targets? A related and more important question: will McDonald's give them the attention they so clearly desperately want by making a big deal out of it?

The ad was made and released by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The group plans to buy TV time for the ad in markets including Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Miami. A spokesperson says the Committee is targeting McDonald's because "they epitomize fast food and the permeation of fast food in the country." She adds that "...something more drastic than a finger-wagging has to be done."

More power to them. The battle against childhood obesity is a noble one and we wish them the best.

As brand strategists, we also hope to see McDonald's not respond beyond the simple bland statement released to the Wall Street Journal: "McDonald's is committed to providing balanced menu choices and a variety of options to meet our customers' needs and preferences."

The Committee's tactics here are clear. This type of advertising never has a hope of changing the minds of those who eat at McDonald's. Indeed, how many McDonald's patrons aren't aware a diet high in fast food is probably unhealthy? Instead, it is meant to provoke the brand.

When the Committee says it has singled out McDonald's because it epitomizes fast food, what they aren't saying is that they've also signaled out McDonald's because they know doing so has the greatest chance of creating a media firestorm which will force the chain to respond which will in turn create free publicity for the Committee's cause.

The great irony in the Committee's statement about targeting McDonald's is that, much like with the attack on the brand's happy meal toys, such publicity reinforces in consumer minds that McDonald's does in fact hold that title. In fact, maybe the only thing The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's attack on McDonald's as the epitome of fast food accomplishes is to reinforce that McDonald's epitomizes fast food.