Our apologies, this is quite a long post but well worth your time. During this campaign (which is now entering its fourth year) Tecoma has been on the end of some very creative PR courtesy of a large McDonald’s PR team both in Sydney and Chicago. When 3000 people marched along Burwood Highway last year to protest the unwanted Tecoma development. McDonald’s Australian Public Relations Manager, Skye Oxenham told the media “Although a small minority of people are against the development, the vast majority of people in the Dandenong Ranges support us” At the time we described that statement as best as a “delusion” and at worst a “corporate lie” Similar press statements were also made to the US media when our delegation tried to hand a petition to CEO Don Thompson. At that time the Global Vice President of Corporate Relations claimed to a large press contingent “That McDonald’s was suing Tecoma for our own protection” (good of them) and that “the Tecoma strip already traded 24/7 and included similar restaurants such as Earthly Pleasures and India Gate” It has become obvious that McDonald’s PR will say anything to deflect bad news.

Which is why we thought we would bring some recent statements to your attention. Remember in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy sees that the all-powerful Oz was in fact a little man behind the curtain. What McDonald’s are currently doing is to tell the public to “pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain” They are asking the media to look the other way because “things aren’t going as well as we would like and you really should report something else” PR professionals call this running “fluff” and of late McDonald’s seem to be running “fluff” almost daily. And the reason they are doing this, the Q2 results have been published in the USA showing McDonald’s is performing badly with two negative growth quarters. One analyst pointed out that only 6% of corporations recover from such a downturn and the likely result will be a rapid decline in McDonald’s share price. This is not a great result for shareholders, the management or the board, which is why McDonald’s wants the media to look the other way.

Almost the day after the poor results were posted McDonald’s Australia put out a press release announcing that they would be trialing home delivery. The media published this without analysis but under closer scrutiny it appeared that all McDonald’s was doing was making their menu available to an already established fast food delivery service. They did not intend to employ new staff or invest in new systems, they simply wanted the media to “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” We are certain that home delivery won’t happen all they wanted was some “fluff” to divert the public’s attention. A similar action occurred last year when the Tecoma story was hotting up and our gNOmes appeared on the evening news and on all of Fairfax’s websites. The next night was a TV news item (created by McDonald’s PR team) announcing that a Sydney McDonald’s outlet would be trailing serving burgers on china plates to enhance in store dining. Again, nothing came of this, they simply needed to attempt to “circuit break” the negative media that was happening due to their behaviour in Tecoma.
Then there was this gem on Monday:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/mcdonalds-vic-expansion-creates-1000-jobs/story-fni0xqi4-1227027868064

McDonald’s actually managed to get a government minister to announce 1000 jobs and pretend that these are somehow replacing highly paid manufacturing jobs. In Tecoma they announced 100 jobs, few are fulltime, most are minimum hours at minimum pay, which is probably what the bulk of these 1000 jobs are. Fortunately the Fairfax papers saw the announcement for what it was clearly lampooning McDonald’s claiming “226 McDonald’s stores in Victoria is clearly not enough”

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/fat-chance-of-spreading-word-as-jobs-muddy-the-mcmessage-20140818-105cie.html

We would of thought the crack PR team at McDonald’s would have not mentioned jobs after the Tecoma experience and the fact they pulled exactly the same stunt in the UK back in June that blew up in their faces. In the UK they announced 8000 new jobs (Come on Skye lift your game) you can read the announcement here:

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/Aboutus/Newsroom/news_pages/Serving_the_UK.html

But what they didn’t tell the media at the time that almost all of these jobs are zero hour contracts. Under new IR laws in the UK employers can employ on the basis of not having to actually offer employees any hours. So in the UK they could announce any ridiculous number because the reality was they weren’t really creating any additional hours. It blew up in their faces when the UK media started to question how many full time jobs were actually being created. You can hear McDonald’s UK HR Manager squirm in this interview when he tells a journalist that having no hours provided flexibility for the employee. It’s it bit like telling a deaf person they will save heaps not having to buy music CD’s

http://www.pinsentmasons.com/en/employmentlawplus/hr-network-tv/news-library/june-2014/27-june-2014/mcdonalds-announce-new-wave-of-zero-hours-jobs-give-staff-flexibility/

We also noticed in today’s Herald Sun the latest piece of “fluff” announcing “McDonald’s adds coffee beans to its retail reach” The story claims that McDonald’s in a joint venture with Kraft Foods will sell McCafe branded coffee beans for retail purchase (assuming they intend to sell in supermarkets) We call this story “fluff” as the final line in the story reads “The fast food giant is yet to reveal if it will launch the packaged products in Australia” We are guessing like serving burgers on plates, home delivery, creating 1000 jobs, packaged coffee is yet another delusion from the PR team of a corporation that seems to have passed its use by date.