The fast-food restaurant’s new campaign stresses the love between the brand and its customers but draws ire from those who believe it should pay better wages

TV viewers are … not lovin’ it.

A new McDonald’s commercial created by ad firm Leo Burnett is proving to be quite divisive, twisting the fast-food purveyor’s slogan of “I’m lovin’ it”.



The ad, which aired during the Golden Globe film and television awards, was supposed to refresh the McDonald’s slogan and highlight expressions of love displayed at locations all around the nation.



The campaign quickly backfired as many viewers took to Twitter to criticize the fast-food company for presenting itself as being part of the community while continuing to pay its workers poverty-level wages.

The company decided to use the signs to focus on the role that McDonald’s plays in the communities it serves, Joel Yashinsky, US vice-president of marketing, told Ad Age days before the ad’s premiere.

Just as McDonald’s allows its franchisees to determine the wages for their workers, it also allows them to determine what to put on the signs below the golden arches.



Among the signs included in the ad were those marking a 9/11 anniversary, celebrating veterans and celebrating a 30th wedding anniversary of Ed and Beth, who are McDonald’s regulars. The story behind each sign featured in the ad can be found on the campaign’s tumblr page.

One of the main reasons that McDonald’s new ad campaign is being dismissed as insincere is its low wages.

“McDonald’s new ad campaign tries to put a fresh face on the same low-wage business model that forces workers to rely on public assistance to make ends meet and that costs taxpayers billions every year,” said Kendall Fells, organizing director of Fast Food Forward.



“There’s no getting around the need for McDonald’s to pay a living wage, and until the company acts, the fast-food workers’ movement will only continue to grow.”

Many McDonald’s workers earn minimum wage despite being with the company for years. This summer, 81-year-old José Carrillo joined protests to demand a higher wage. Castillo, who was arrested while participating in the protests, has worked for McDonald’s for 10 years as a maintenance man and at the time was making just $8.10. On average, McDonald workers make $9.15 an hour.

McDonald’s insists that its wages are fair – or, at least, based on the marketplace.

“The topic of minimum wage goes well beyond McDonald’s – it affects our country’s entire workforce. McDonald’s and our independent franchisees support paying our valued employees fair wages aligned with a competitive marketplace,” Becca Hary, director of global media relations at McDonald’s, told the Guardian last week.

We believe that any minimum wage increase should be implemented over time so that the impact on owners of small and medium-sized businesses – like the ones who own and operate the majority of our restaurants – is manageable. Additionally, we believe that any increase needs to be considered in a broad context, one that considers, for example, the impact of the Affordable Care Act and its definition of ‘full-time’ employment, as well as the treatment, from a tax perspective, of investments made by businesses owners.”

Hary went on to point out that about 90% of US McDonald’s restaurants are “independently owned and operated by franchisees”.



The owners of those restaurants set wages according to local, state and federal laws. More than 20 US states have raised their minimum wage for 2015. “McDonald’s does not determine wages set by our more than 3,000 US franchisees,” she added.

There is currently a bill in Congress to redefine full-time employment under the Affordable Care Act as 40 hours a week instead of 30. The bill, according to Republicans who support it, would prevent companies from cutting workers’ hours in order to avoid paying for their insurance.

“One of the worst things we could do is destroy the 40-hour work week, which has been a part of American culture and life for a very long time,” the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said last week.

The White House has warned that President Obama is likely to veto the bill.

Ironically, another McDonald’s ad, “Archenemies”, shows the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant coming together to enjoy some McDonald’s.



In 2010, more than 75% of the workers at corporate-owned McDonald’s locations were part-time working less than 18 hours a week; the number of part-time and full-time workers at franchisee-operated McDonald’s wasn’t available. The company says that while it can’t tell its franchisees what wage to pay and benefits to provide, it has made it possible for the corporate healthcare plans to be available through its franchisees. In 2010, almost 80% of franchisees offered such plans to their workers.