McDonald - The Arthur Page Society

against the mega-corporation, and film crews followed the story from start to finish. In
2005, the DVD documentary film, McLibel, was released to an international audience.
In effect, McDonald’s lawsuit against Steel and Morris built the media agenda on
issues unfavorable to McDonald’s, negatively affected public perception of McDonald’s
as a heartless giant of a corporation, and cost McDonald’s more than a million dollars.
McDonald’s realized its mistake in opting to take aggressive legal action once the
court case was completed. Even though the courts ruled in McDonald’s favor and
imposed a fine of 40,000 English pounds on Steel and Morris, McDonald’s made no
attempt to collect the fine, which Steel and Morris never paid.
Question for Discussion:
• What actions short of a lawsuit might McDonald’s have taken in response to the
Greenpeace pamphlet criticizing their company, and why might such actions be
better than a lawsuit?
• What financial impact and media coverage should a company consider before
pressing legal charges against oppositional groups?
5. Solutions through Application of the Page Principles
5.1 Tell the truth
Denying that Super Size Me had any impact on corporate changes that were made
following its release does not ring true. Perceptions of non-truthfulness by an
organization in the eyes of consumers can be detrimental to any company. McDonald’s
would have served its purposes better by acknowledging that they, too, were concerned
about the high calorie content in the super sized portions and were therefore going to
withdraw that option.
40