Could it be the work of the Hamburgler: McDonald's Confronts an Online Hoax

McDonald's was the subject of a hoax 

Turns out that that the phone number listed on the false notice actually goes to KFC.

And, it turns out, that the notice was not true.

McDonald's has a strong track record of diversity. And once the company found the hoax, it tweeted a response and then retweeted others who supported the Golden Arches.

But there are some, including Ragan.com's Matt Wilson, who asked, "Did McDonald’s do enough to correct a Twitter hoax?"


Check out the article, but here are some points to consider about McDonald's response:

• People started using the hashtag #seriouslymcdonalds to comment on the issue. In my search, I did not see that McDonald's used that hashtag, so that people looking at that as a trending topic probably would not have seen McDonald's response. Instead, McDonald's retweeted some other folks' tweets that included the #seriouslymcdonalds hashtag. 
• They could have made a temporary change to the link listed in the McDonald's bio; right now it links to the @McDonalds Twitter Team -- but the company could have added a temporary statement about the hoax and its track record in supporting diversity.
• Since this was a hoax perpetuated outside the company -- i.e., was not an employee prank, like that video from KFC's employees or a mistweet by the Chrysler social media agency or the Red Cross employee --- McDonald's could have taken a more aggressive stance in getting out the news that the photo was a hoax, and to have pointed to its decades of diversity success. The company may have wanted to be cautious for fear of unleashing copycat hoaxes, but I think it's an opportunity to tout its record on diversity. And, as some noted in Wilson's article, this hoax is likely to re-appear anyway because it can be difficult to kill rumors (Pres. Obama's birth certificate is just one example).

As for suspects behind the hoax, I'm sure McDonald's will investigate who might be behind it.

I have no way of knowing, but am wondering if ex-McDonald's employee, the Hamburgler may still carry a grudge.

Wired's Jargon Watch: Dark Marketing

In physics, there's dark matter.

In financial trading, there's dark pools of liquidity -- sounds Gothic and unexpectedly poetic, actually.

Now there's dark marketing. According to the July Wired's "Jargon Watch" column, dark marketing is "discretely sponsored online and real-world entertainment intended to reach hipster audiences that would ordinarily shun corporate shilling. McDonald's is the latest mega-brad to adopt this paradoxical promotional tool, with an alternate-reality game called The Lost Ring, nearly devoid of golden arches.

Interestingly, though Wired tries to report on the cutting-edge and things that will impact us in the immediate future, in this case it was scooped by -- or, worse, got the idea for the column from -- the International Herald Tribune. On April 1, 2008, the IHT published "McDonald's tries 'dark' marketing." (Hmm, April -- that's about the time the July issue of Wired would have been in production.)

Why did McDonald's go dark?

"Our goal is really about strengthening our bond with the global youth culture," Mary Dillon, McDonald's global chief marketing officer, told the IHT.

Here's an interesting point about an alternate-reality game, or ARG. "If an ARG is too clearly corporate or commercial, the gamers will not want to engage. It's very important that the game be written in a way where the branding is not obvious," Tracy Tuten, an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies new-media marketing tools, told the IHT.

So how does McDonald's measure the impact of its ARG investment?

By not revealing the cost of the campaign, except to say "in the context of the total Olympics, it's just a fraction of what we're doing."

"As for measuring the company's return on the investment, or ROI, Dillon said she would look at it as more of a learning experience."

I guess that works for mega-corporations targeting consumers. I don't see how dark marketing is efficient or effective when it comes to the B2B market.