McDonald’s Super Bowl Commercial Lets Customers Pay with Lovin Instead of Money

In recent years, McDonald’s has struggled to stay relevant and profitable as consumer tastes have changed and “fundamental shifts” have occurred in the restaurant business. In response to these challenges, this week, McDonald’s forced former CEO Don Thompson to resign and replaced him with Steve Easterbrook, who is expected to uncover how to revive the fast-food chain from its near-death status.

Mr. Easterbrook’s tenure will begin March 1, but in the meantime McDonald’s has already introduced something new to its menu, or rather a new way to pay for items on its menu. From February 2nd to the 14th (between 6 AM and 6 PM), McDonald’s customers will be randomly selected to “pay with lovin.”

This idea is part of McDonald’s newest ad campaign, aptly titled “Choose Lovin.” McDonald’s will randomly select 100 customers per store and give them the opportunity to show love instead of money to pay for their meals. Examples include dancing, calling a family member, or saying something a person loves about himself. This concept was also selected this year for McDonald’s Super Bowl Commercial.

Some people, however, are far from moved by the ad campaign and particularly, McDonald’s Super Bowl advertisement, which features customers getting their meals for free by calling their mothers or dancing. Charles Evans, a writer for the website Lightly Buzzed commented on the commercial writing, “Yes, it is just as ridiculous as it sounds…Why would I debase myself to dance for a dollar hamburger? It would be one thing to dance for a new car, but reformed chicken parts put in the shape of a nugget? Nope.”

Indeed, Evans comments strike at the heart of the perception McDonald’s is trying to change, namely that it sells “reformed chicken parts” and is nothing more than a fast-food behemoth. A number of Youtube videos from McDonald’s have already been released to demonstrate that chicken nuggets come from real chicken parts, white meat only, and not some industrial “pink goop.” Yet their efforts seem to have swayed very few individuals toward accepting McDonald’s food as an edible food choice option or the company as an ethical corporation.

Other individuals think like Claude Angeli, a commenter on Lightly Buzzed who wrote, “Dear Mcdonald’s since you are deaf…stop stupid gimmicks and use the money to pay your workers more! How brain dead are you?” But again, separating truth from fiction can be hard. For example, according to the website Fiver Thirty Eight‘s DataLab, McDonald’s offers better remuneration than other fast-food chains, such as Burger King and Wendy’s (McDonald’s pays $9.15 per hour compared to Burger King’s $8.80 per hour and Wendy’s $8.90 per hour). Even more interesting, in the San Francisco area, McDonald’s employees are paid up to $12.17 per hour, as compared to the industry rate of $9.07 an hour.

Returning to the quality of food, when people disparage McDonald’s and praise Chipotle for example, few realize that Chipotle receives many of its ingredients from the same companies that provide food items for McDonald’s. Additionally, whereas Chitpotle’s two CEOs were paid a combined $49.5 million in 2013, the average entry-level employee made $21,000 compared to McDonald’s $34,200. Thus, although people are of course entitled to their opinions, it seems the truth about wages and food quality is much more nuanced than many would like to believe.

(Photo courtesy of Mike Mozart)