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Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
VII. Special Topics and
Perspectives
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE 20-5
696
20. International
Advertising and Promotion
McDonald’s Deals with Public Relations
Problems in France
One of the challenges facing multinational companies
operating in foreign markets is that various groups
such as consumers, government, the media, and other
relevant publics may feel threatened by their presence.
Resentment and concerns over their presence in a
country can make public relations problems and crisis
situations even more difficult for large multinational
companies, as McDonald’s has learned from problems
it has encountered in France over the past few years.
McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in France in
1979 and now has more than 800 outlets across the
country. As the company expanded in France, it made
efforts to appear as French as possible, dressing up its
sandwiches with cheeses and herbs and adapting its
menu to better suit the tastes of local consumers.
However, in the late 90s McDonald’s began receiving
negative publicity from ongoing anti-American
protests by angry French farmers. The farmers’ movement
was triggered by a World Trade Organization ruling
ordering Europe to accept hormone-fed beef
produced in the United States and by sanctions the
U.S. government imposed on a host of imported French
foods, including Roquefort cheese, truffles, and Dijon
mustard. The farmers’ protests have included the
dumping of tons of animal manure and rotting vegetables
at McDonald’s restaurants all over France and
have attracted mass-media attention in the country.
Additional protests against McDonald’s were led by
Jose Bove, a French citizen who has been described as
a professional militant and is known for headlinegrabbing
acts of civil disobedience. Bove became a
folk hero to many when he led a group that vandalized
a partially built McDonald’s restaurant in the French
town of Millau to protest the U.S. import tax on Roquefort
cheese and other European agricultural products.
He also lashed out at what he called the global proliferation
of “le malbouf,” or junk food. A recent book he
wrote with fellow farm unionist Francois Dufour, The
World Is Not For Sale: Farmers against Junk Food, has
been translated into eight languages.
Initially McDonald’s took a low-key approach to the
protests and attacks, declining to press charges for
vandalism against its restaurants and placing posters
in its restaurants explaining that McDonald’s is a
major partner of the French agricultural sector. However,
in fall 1999 McDonald’s France began countering
the negative publicity by launching a “Made in France”
corporate advertising campaign in 60 regional daily
newspapers across the country. The ads inform consumers
that while the brand may be American, the
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
products served in France’s 750 McDonald’s outlets are
French in origin. The ads underscore McDonald’s policy
of buying French products and its role in France’s
agricultural sector, while thanking consumers who
have remained loyal. In response to the farmers’ concerns,
McDonald’s also began substituting locally produced
specialties targeted by the U.S. sanctions, such
as duck breast and Roquefort cheese, for traditional
ingredients in the company’s Big Mac and cheeseburger
menu items.
French government officials, while deploring violence
against McDonald’s, have done little, if anything,
to improve the company’s image in the country. The
French prime minister declared that he thought Jose
Bove raised valid questions about McDonald’s, while
the Socialist minister of agriculture publicly referred
to the United States as the home of the world’s worst
food. McDonald’s problems in France continued into
the new millennium, as an employee in one of the company’s
restaurants in Brittany was killed in a bombing
in April 2000.
McDonald’s France executives have asked their compatriots
to understand that the company is essentially
a French company staffed by industrious employees
and to stop using it as a symbol in a fight against U.S.
trade sanctions. The company has also pointed to its
efforts to ensure that supplies of its products are
obtained locally in France and are of high quality. It
appears that the company’s public relations efforts
have been succeeding, as sales in France increased by