This content was created by Eric Siu. This content was uploaded by Eric Siu. This is a YouTube episode titled "Did Trump's Mcdonald's Stunt Hurt Mcdonald's Sentiment?" (published 2024-10-30). The excerpt is a podcast-style conversation between Eric Siu and Neil Patel, featuring audio clips and quotes from Donald Trump. They discuss Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s drive‑through, McDonald’s PR response and political neutrality, the potential branding/marketing impact, public reactions and memes, and include an in-episode promotional ad for agency owner workshops. The tone is conversational and analytical about marketing and reputation management.
Chapters
McDonald's tells this restaurant that it's not a political brand.
This guy's a good instructor.
Trump went to a McDonald's, I don't know in what state, and he started serving people their food through a drive-through.
Hello, how are you? You're a good-looking guy.
Now, if you look at the United States, I'm giving you rough percentages here based on past political voting, but it's roughly half America votes Democrat, half votes Republican. Would you agree with this? It's somewhere in that range.
Yep.
And I get there's some independence, but the last thing a corporation wants to do, no matter what they believe in, if you end up saying, hey, look, here's President Trump or potential President Trump, ex-President Trump here at McDonald's, you're pretty much saying, look, check this out, we're Republican. And all you're going to do is potentially alienate 50% of your customers.
Mm-hmm.
And right away McDonald's releases statements saying, hey, we're not, to be used for any political type of campaigns. They're telling their franchisers or franchisees and saying, hey, our restaurant shouldn't be a place for anything that's related to politics. Okay.
So, your internet sucks and I cannot pull up the actual tweet. Mandarin Oriental, no? Okay, here. Oh, sorry, I just gave it away. But anyway, so, okay. Here's what it says. It says McDonald's USA. This is the PR thing. So, this is McDonald's PR masterclass. So, this message is intended for the McDonald's USA system. Earlier today, former President Trump visited a McDonald's restaurant in Pennsylvania following a request made to our local franchisee. As we've seen, our brand has been a fixture of conversation this election cycle. While we've not sought this, it is a testament to how much McDonald's resonates with so many Americans. McDonald's does not endorse candidates for elected office, and that remains true in this race for the next president. We are not red or blue, we are golden. That's a good one, right? Because golden fries, right? Golden arches. Though we are not a political brand, We've been proud to hear former President Trump's love for McDonald's and Vice President Harris' fond memories working under the arches. While we and our franchisees don't have records for all positions dating back to the early '80s, what makes 1 in 8 so powerful is the shared experiences so many Americans have had. Let me just go all the way down here. So upon learning of the former president's request, we approach it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone. So this is just a very It's a very inclusive, I should say, very open PR message. And they're just staying neutral. And, you know, they kind of spun it in a way where it's like, hey, like we're opening to everyone, you know, Vice President Harris is welcome as well, but we're just going to stay focused on, you know, doing what we do best, selling fast food.
Dude, totally. And, you know, I think McDonald's was smart for getting in front of it right after it happened and just start putting— pushing out statements. It doesn't matter what they believe in politically, you know, They're a business. So many families and kids eat at McDonald's, their chicken nuggets and stuff like that. Dude, I was at a baby shower a week ago, flew back into town, went to a baby shower, flew right back out of town. And, uh, my— one of my kids joined me on the baby shower. There wasn't food. And before we rolled up into baby shower, I was telling Emma, I was just like, hey, if you don't find anything at this place that you like to eat, Don't worry, don't get upset, right? Because a little kid, they're going to get hungry. I'm like, I'll get you some food on the way home or we'll leave quickly. And one of the parents in there who my wife was a friend with, she brought McDonald's Happy Meals for the kids because she knew that they probably wouldn't like to eat the fancy adult food. And spot on, kids love McDonald's. You don't want to start alienating people by just You know, pushing people politically.
Yep. All right. Well, so there's that. I mean, and then obviously, you know, Trump's McDonald's marketing play, he got a lot of shorts recorded as well, where he was just like, you know, uh, he's kind of attacking, you know, uh, Vice President Harris, like she's never worked here. I've worked here for 15 minutes. I've worked here 15 minutes longer than her.
Right.
It's kind of funny, right?
I love McDonald's. I love jobs. I like to see good jobs. And I think it's inappropriate when somebody puts down All over the place that she worked at McDonald's. It was a big part of her resume that she worked at McDonald's, how tough a job it was. She specifically worked at the french fry— where they make the french fries, and she talked about the heat. It was so tough. She never worked at McDonald's.
Agency owners, if you want to grow faster, my partner Neil Patel and I, we are hosting live agency owner workshops in Beverly Hills, and you're going to learn how to get more clients. You're going to learn how to take yourself out out of the day-to-day. You're going to learn how to recruit the right people and you're going to be hanging out with like-minded people such as yourself. So if you want to learn more, just go to marketingschool.io/agency. Again, it's marketingschool.io/agency and we'll see you on the other side. And then it's really, it's interesting because they showed the people walking through the, or coming through the drive-through. Did you see the Indian couple?
No.
The Indian couple were like, you know, I don't know how to do the accent. You know how to do the accent. But they're just like, a lot of people are very supportive, right? And then, And then it's funny because he'll like point over and he's like, oh, look over there, it's fake news, right? And so he just kept it very light, very funny. And there were a lot of memes that were created from it too, right? So I think this is a nice marketing play for him because I saw a meme where it's like, you know, when you've completed all the levels in life and you go on side quests just for fun, it shows him like making fries. And so I think he got a lot more impressions from that. And so if it's one thing Trump's really good at, I would say it's awareness.
Yeah.
It's marketing, it's branding. By the way, we're not saying we endorse either candidate, so. And that is it for today. Please don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe, and we will see you tomorrow.
