Coalition of Franchisee Associations

January 25, 2023

Does McDonald's Need TikTok?

AdAge ranks McDonald's TikTok post as number one for the month

Bill to ban TikTok nationwide to be introduced in Senate.

7 comments:

Richard Adams said...

Advertising, public relations, and folks from big corporations usually lean to the left politically and see nothing wrong with totalitarian governments. When they are told TikTok is controlled by Chinese communists their response will likely be, "Yeah ... So?".
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Anonymous said...

ALL social media is a SEWER

Anonymous said...

TikTok is a social media platform, yes with full CCP influence and controls like most things US consumers purchase. My perspective is if the advertising sells me more burgers and makes me more bottom-line profit than other advertising outlets I could care less. It's not like McDonald's is not already involved with China in a big way the largest unit market outside the USA and thinks they open a couple hundred more units a year one every couple of days.

Richard Adams said...

'My perspective is if the advertising sells me more burgers and makes me more bottom-line profit than other advertising outlets I could care less.'

And that's exactly the attitude taken by McDonald's management. Yet the consensus here and in most places is that major brands should not get involved in politics. For TikTok, that horse has already left the barn. The platform has been banned by more than 20 state governments and many universities and colleges. Every warning light is flashing.

I don't understand what McDonald's Corp's success or failure in China has to do with how McDonald's USA uses TikTok or any other social media. If the perception of TikTok among a large number of Americans is, or becomes, negative McDonald's in China just isn't a factor.
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Anonymous said...

Richard - On this one, I would have to disagree with you. The perception of TikTok is not negative by most USA consumers this is why they have over 75 million daily active users just in the USA, which is more than people visiting McDonald's worldwide daily. "Getting involved in politics" would be not using their social media presence because of some politicians' objections.

It is being banned because it makes headlines for those folks. If politicians want to ban Chinese influence, spying, and intrusion into USA citizens' daily lives there is a lot more they could be doing but they fail to act. Just a small example of this is China sells camera systems to most US businesses a majority of our restaurants use camera systems manufactured in China not that the CCP cares about what is going on in my restaurant but these are the same cameras in almost every corporate board room, local government offices, etc. All these cameras nowadays come with built-in microphones even though they come turned off, any camera DVR system the CCP wants to access can be seen as they probably have a list of all the serial numbers produced, and if you have that and the maker as there are only a few (even though there are thousands of names) you can access any system in the world. Chinese also produces most telecommunications equipment used at every level within the USA. The Chinese are about to win the microchip war too which will be the final control.

But hey let's worry about Tiktok and some folks' negative perception of it. Time will tell but using TikTok in marketing is about the least of my worries within McDonald's.

Richard Adams said...

I'm not looking for agreement or an argument here. This is just something where business owners should pay attention. When multiple government officials describe something as a "Chinese communist spy network" I think we should all pay attention and businesses should be careful not to fund such an operation.
That's why I said, "the horse has left the barn." This isn't about some goofy tweet by Donald Trump or Elon Musk. This is a serious global power play.

As for Chinese products, most of the stuff and equipment in the workspace around me has its roots in China (or Taiwan, or S. Korea). I agree with the WalMart spin that Chinese manufacturing has offered the average American many lifestyle accouterments that otherwise would have been out of their reach.

But that doesn't mean we roll over and let the Trojan Horse further through the gate. And the last place one should go for guidance on such a topic is a multinational company with a huge stake in the Chinese mainland.

Or we could take this approach:

https://nypost.com/2023/01/28/us-air-force-gen-mike-minihan-predicts-china-war-in-2025/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=news_alert&utm_content=20230128?&utm_source=sailthru&lctg=607d8f1070302947037ea829&utm_term=NYP%20-%20News%20Alerts
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Anonymous said...

Here's the bottom line- Owner Operators focus on long-term business viability and entrepreneurial success which is in stark contrast with the company's direction of short-term strategies to foster immediate gains (and pad their individual portfolios and golden parachutes). We are long-term owners, they are short-term profiteers. Anything goes in their world, as long as it enriches their personal coffers and inflates the stock price.