Posted 1:38 PM by Paul
Brand America

Brand America

McDonalds have launched a new line called "Toasted Deli Sandwiches" to counter the rapid decline of the Big Mac. They get lead billing on the menu and in the windows. They are a bit soggy but a marked improvement on their hamburgers.

Profits have been falling at the Golden Arches and they needed to respond to the growing threat of Subway, who now has more outlets in the USA, who lead on the freshness of their ingredients and lower fat count. The move towards healthy eating, particularly amongst young girls has really hit McDonalds hard.

Alice is convinced that Big Macs are 99% fat and her cousin chipped in that McDonalds was "really unhygienic". Both these claims are untrue but it's perception that counts. These two girls' comments would have given any McDonalds marketeer heart palpitations because they are not untypical of what many young people think. McDonalds tried to counter these arguments with a multi million pound campaign trumpeting their 100% ground beef, free range eggs and fresh lettuce "it's McDonalds - but not as we know it." but it didn't work. So they created a new line and a new approach

What was most telling about the new TV campaign for the Toasted Deli Sandwich is that it is a celebration of the Great British Sandwich, voiced by British regional accents and without a milligram of Americana in it. Not even the ersatz mid Atlantic type typified by all those people who took up watching American Football in the 1980s and banged on about how great it would be to live in Texas. No - the new toasted deli sandwich was positioned as the proud successor to the sarnie, the buttie, the stottie. McDonalds is now covering up American origins because they have become a liability to the bottom line.