where McDonald’s and Burger King went wrong

Experts see problems in the communication of brands and say that social networks are allies of the consumer

The last few days were marked by controversies involving two of the largest fast food chains in the world. Last week, Arcos Dorados – owner of McDonald’s – was notified by Procon-SP, which asked for more explanations about McPicanha, until then the brand’s new line of snacks, as the meat that gave the sandwich its name was not included, and yes, a sauce with ‘natural flavor of picanha’.

Last Monday (2), it was Burger King’s turn to be at the center of a controversy with the Whopper Ribs, which, instead of ribs, contained ‘pork palette’ and ‘100% natural pork rib’. BK was notified by Procon-SP, as PROPMARK had advanced on Monday.

Finally, McDonald’s announced the withdrawal of the product and apologized on social media. It was bad, guys! We hesitated on the name of our new sandwich. That’s why we decided to take it off the menu,” he wrote in a post. Like the competitor, Burger King also recognized the mistake and renamed the sandwich, now Whopper Pork Palette.

For experts, the situation exposes communication failures, such as a lack of transparency, as stated by Genaro Galli, branding professor at ESPM’s Prime MBA.

“The attitude of these brands is totally contrary to all contemporary theories of branding, marketing and business management”, he says. “We have big brands, with big teams of executives and big budgets hurting the basics. In the middle of 2022, seeing advertisers of this size have this attitude is totally inappropriate”, he adds.

In a note, the executive director of Procon-SP says he has been looking with ‘concern at advertising food products that highlight a certain ingredient that is not part of the composition of that product or that does not have the ingredient in its main composition’, declared Guilherme Farid, reporting that he had asked Burger King for an explanation about the product and the advertising campaign.

Speaking of advertising campaign, in the case of the launch of the sandwich line, McDonald’s produced an advertising film within the BBB. The video – which is no longer available on the brand’s social networks – showed the brothers’ reaction when they tried the snack.

Multisetorial
For Roberto Gondo Macedo, professor of competitive intelligence at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, despite the cases in the food sector, the multisectoral problem can also be perceived in promotional campaigns, such as those that use lowercase letters.

“It is a serious problem. In the 21st century, reputation matters. Consumers begin to see companies that have attitudes both in their posture and organizational nature and in the very logic of healthiness within the products or services ”, he explains.

how to contain
Macedo says that he sees social media as a great tool to curb this type of action, in addition to the work of bodies such as Conar (National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation). “Social networks play a fundamental role for companies to move at this point”, he evaluates.

Despite the negative exposure and reputation crisis, ESPM’s Galli suggests that brand stakeholders should have a more vehement attitude, as happens when influencers make mistakes and have their contracts cancelled.

“But I believe that the main way would be for people to have an attitude against these companies, not consuming, not recommending and clarifying other people about the situation”, he says.

Fábio Pelicer Lopes de Souza, assistant coordinator and professor of publicity and propaganda at FMU, adds that the inspection bodies need to reinforce their work and ensure that the laws are effectively enforced. And, of course, brands need to employ transparent actions in the design of products, services and campaigns.

“Otherwise, people in general will forever think that marketing is the ‘art of deceiving people’, when, in fact, marketing is an art and a science that aims to meet the needs and wants of consumers by making them satisfied. or enchanted, but with the purest truth”, he concludes.