McDonald’s has flipped its golden arches to become a W, “in celebration of women everywhere, and for the first time in our brand history” – to which many have responded, “try again”.
For its own commemoration of International Women’s Day, McDonald’s overturned its logo on Twitter, Instagram and its other digital channels; supplied 100 restaurants in the US with special branded garb; and – at one franchise in California – went so far as to install a new sign.
A @McDonalds in Lynwood, California has flipped its arches upside down in honour of #InternationalWomensDay on March 8th..!! 👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/BTQfDq4Ipq
— Muhammad Haris Tufail (@mhtufail_) March 8, 2018
McDonald’s global chief diversity officer, Wendy Lewis, said in a statement to Business Insider that the stunt was “in honour of the extraordinary accomplishments of women everywhere, and especially in our restaurants”.
But her vow that the company was “committed to their success” was called into question by social media users who called on McDonald’s to pay its employees a living wage.
McDonalds: In celebration of women we are flipping the arches upside down.
— bogwolf (@truebe) March 7, 2018
Or you could give your employees better benefits.
McD: Look it's a W!
Maybe a living wage? Better family leave? A career path forward in the face of automation?
McD: The W stands for women.
When I started using the term "McFeminism" to refer to the corporate-friendly, HRC fan sort of feminism, I didn't expect McDonalds to actually become one of the biggest examples of the phenomenon 🤦🏻♀️
— Thorne Melcher 🌸 (@ExistentialEnso) March 8, 2018
I THOUGHT THE UPSIDE DOWN MCDONALDS LOGO STOOD FOR WOLVES
— NOT A WOLF (@SICKOFWOLVES) March 7, 2018
OR LIVABLE WAGES
BUT YEAH THIS IS GOOD SURE FINE
In response to the campaign, the British leftwing group Momentum put out a video highlighting how McDonald’s low wages and zero-hours contracts meant some women workers faced poverty and homelessness. The videos, produced in collaboration with the Bakers’ Union, are in support of striking McDonald’s workers.
“This empty McFeminism has nothing to do with women’s liberation and everything to do with McDonald’s attempt to sanitise its image,” said Laura Parker, Momentum’s national coordinator. “If they actually cared about women, they’d pay their workers a living wage and stop forcing them onto zero hours contracts.
“It’s completely unacceptable that zero hours contracts at McDonald’s have left women workers without enough money to feed their children – and have even made some of them homeless.”
Meanwhile KFC Malaysia also made an attempt to mark the day, by changing its icon from Colonel Sanders to Claudia Sanders, the founder’s second wife.
A representative of KFC’s marketing agency, Stanley Clement from IPG Mediabrands’ Society and Universal McCann, described the origin of the change thusly: “The team was looking at ways to support this, and discovered the story of Claudia Sanders, the wife of Colonel Sanders”.
Meet Claudia Sanders 👋
— Marketing Week (@MarketingWeekEd) March 8, 2018
To mark #IWD2018 @kfc is introducing the world to Colonel Sanders’ wife 👇https://t.co/5NNf4KCHFv pic.twitter.com/hurligwamb
They may have missed part of the story however. In a biography of her father, Colonel Sanders’ daughter Margaret Sanders said her father originally hired Claudia to help her mother, his first wife, with housework, according to reporting from Buzzfeed.
“It was evident from the beginning that her presence would create turmoil,” his daughter Margaret wrote. “Neither promiscuous nor a whoremonger, Father nevertheless had a libido which required a healthy, willing partner,” she wrote. “He found one in young Claudia.” Claudia became Sanders’ second wife in 1949.
