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.
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