zw022118@ohio.edu
McDonalds has a global footprint, what started out as a small hamburger drive up has become a massive fast food chain and a part of our popular culture in general. But when it comes to cultures around the world, not every product is a hit with every person or culture and its McDonald's desire when the introduce a product to a specific region, that it is successful.
Enter...astroturfing. The ethically questionable process of sponsors of a message or an organization making that message or product, or whatever it may be, appear to be a grassroots movement. And America's most well-known eatery is guilty of this practice...in Japan, even appear on Business Insider's list of some of the worst astroturfing instances of recent years.
In 2008, McDonalds introduced the Quarter Pounder with cheese to it's Japan market, specifically the Midosuji-Suomachi location in Japan. According to a Japan Now article the store saw around 15,000 visitors on that day. And customers walking around the surrounding areas early in that day would have seen 1,000 + people lined up at the McDonalds ready to try the new item. What they didn't know was that those 1,000 had been sent and paid by McDonalds themselves in order to drum up support for the new product and give the appearance that it was in high demand for. McDonalds had claimed that they only made one request to one of their marketing firms and did not outright say that first initial group was compensated. But most of the signs pointed at McDonalds paying the customers around $11 dollars worth of Chinese Yen.
While the simple payment of that first crop of customers can't really dictate what future consumers in Japan will think of the quarter pounder, the sheer fact of seeing such a larger crowd lined up at the restaurant most likely led others to visit the chain that day, which ballooned to the 15,000+ that filtered in and out of the store that day, with a good chunk of change being generated by those consumers for McDonalds as a whole.
Astroturfing is present in almost every corporation or organization from time to time, even in the ones we like we "love".
Juan Guevara
ReplyDeletejg808618@ohio.edu
First of all, I am loving your title. There is definitely an art to good title's. kudos.
Yes, I agree, the practice McDonald's is performing is unethical, however, I am not sure if I disagree with it. This practice should probably be illegal but as for now it seems like fair game. It reminds me when someone opens a small business and invites family and friends to make a big crowed and give a perception of an anticipated business. But, paying for them is a way other extreme. Thanks for shining light on this; I didn't know.