McDonald’s relies on earned media to empower Asian-American connection

McDonald’s, the restaurant chain, has doubled down on multicultural marketing as seeks to be more nimble in this area.

Two Filipino-Americans were eating at a branch of McDonald’s in Houston, Texas. They were fresh from a viewing of the film “Crazy Rich Asians” and were feeling some Asian-identity pride.

And, as they looked around the restaurant, they noticed that no one featured in the in-house posters or point-of-purchase materials looked anything like them.

“When they did not see enough [Asian] representation,” Steven Hunter, McDonald’s manager for public relations and brand engagement, told delegates at the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) 2018 Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference, “they took matters into their own hands.

“They went to a local store,...

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