McDonald’s breaks with history to march boldly in support of Black Lives Matter movement

McDonald’s, the quick-service restaurant chain, became a high-profile supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement with a series of commercials that spread authentic, powerful messages.

Why it matters

Mass-market brands draw their audiences from a wide range of communities, and the need to represent and support these diverse audiences is pressing. Failure to do so has an ethical component, but also could have profound business impacts as consumers push back against companies that do not make their stance clear.

Takeaways

  • Companies have traditionally been apolitical, but the efforts to push back against long-term racial prejudice and injustice mean this “independent”stance is less viable than ever.
  • Messages that support diverse communities should generally not include the usual branding assets used by marketers, as that undermines the...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands