Excessively Branded McDonald's

No one would really be all that surprised to hear that McDonald's had long ago sold themselves out. One need look no further than the fury of Occupy Wall Street to know that big business gets a big frown-face among the protesting John's and Jane's.

Still, with the deafening number of McDonald's locations foun d all over the nation and all over the world, I was surprised to find McDonald's at number 403 on the Fortune Global 500 list of biggest companies (I had figured it would have been higher). But I guess that's what happens when you turn your back on the system (Occupy Wall Street have been using the McDonald's bathroom across from Zuccotti Park for their own open-door washing station since moving in and taking up residence) the masses turn their backs on you. Actually for food locations though McDonald's is still the king in sales; having just recently slipped to second in terms of number of global locations to Subway Restaurants, according to The Wall Street Journal .

Anyway I was inside a McDonald's the other day early in the morning just sitting and waiting for an adjacent store to open and I couldn't help but be amazed at how branded this new McCafe McDonald's really was. McCafe is the chains attempt at seeming "cool" like certain other coffee shops while still holding true to the McDonald's value proposition.

You wouldn't know that there was much "value" going on from the outfitting of this McDonald's however. There were LG Flat Screen TVs showing cartoons, there was this Monopoly promotion that McDonald's does, there were advertisements for the Rockettes at the Radio City Music Hall, there were Coca-Cola branded flags out above the outdoor tables, ads for EA Sports games, "Beaches" vacations, and Nissan cars were just some more of the quite striking force feeding of brands on customers who maybe just want to eat a hamburger in peace. But the real remarkable thing was this constant stream of really long commercials playing lieu of music.

This one commercial for the Worx GT made me want to get a yard so that I could get myself a cordless Worx GT Trimmer & Edger. At only three easy payments of $39.95 why would I not want to get this thing? There were also commercials for Blockbuster Total Access subscription video and game service which made me reticent for the days when there were Blockbuster Video Stores seemingly everywhere.

But all this goes back to the excessive branding and selling out that companies are beginning sooner and sooner. I was out and about in the city the other day and I saw this ad for a new book by Martin Lindstrom called "Brandwashed," and his analysis seems to take a similar view of the way that marketers play to we lowly consumers. All in a New York minute and all while we're chowing down on garbage food.

Now about that Worx Brand GT Trimmer for that yard I was going to get...

Sources:

http://money. cnn .com/ magazines/fortune/global500/ 2011/snapshots/2262.html

http://online. wsj .com/article/ SB1000142405274870338670457618 6432177464052.html

http://www. worxtools .com/US/ Lithium_GT_151-P1590. aspx ? gclid = CKzp4arq9KsCFYHe4Aod9xZrtQ

http://www.martinlindstrom.com/brandwashed/