"Seriously McDonalds" is the name under which a viral photograph was spread in June 2011. The photograph shows a sign, which is in fact a hoax, claiming that

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

has implemented a new policy charging

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more, as "an

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measure". Despite having existed for some time, the picture was spread around the Internet, especially on

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, in June 2011, by people who were offended or amused by the photograph. McDonald's acted quickly to deny the legitimacy of the sign, but it continued to

trend A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve shor ...

on Twitter under the hashtag "#SeriouslyMcDonalds" and "#seriouslymcdonalds" for a few days. The company's response to the hoax has received praise from journalists and

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. ...

professionals.

Photograph

The photograph shows a sign stuck on what is apparently the window of a McDonald's restaurant with tape. The sign reads: The sign has a footer which says "McDonald's Corporation" and features the McDonald's logo and a helpline number. However, the helpline number actually connects to the KFC Customer Satisfaction Hotline. The picture is a hoax; McDonald's has no such policy.

History

Prior to viral status

The picture had existed for three years on

4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...

, and McDonald's had been aware of the image for around a year. The McDonald's social media team were not concerned about the photograph, assigning it a low "impact level", as it made claims that the team thought were too outrageous to be believed. Lauri Apple, writing for gossip website Gawker, reported, attributing the claim to "various sources on the Twitter", that the image was a meme that first surfaced on

some time before it went viral. Apple also linked to a post showing the picture on McServed.com, a blog which mocks both McDonald's and its customers, dated 17 June 2010.

Viral

It surfaced in June 2011, having been picked up by influential Twitter users, and went viral. The photograph was spread around the Internet by email and on social networking sites, especially

, under the title "Seriously McDonalds". The title is meant as an expression of incredulity at the restaurant chain. Kate Linendoll, technology expert for ''

The Early Show ''The Early Show'' is an American morning television show that aired on CBS from November 1, 1999 to January 7, 2012, and the ninth attempt at a morning news-talk program by the network since 1954. The program aired Monday through Friday from ...

'', hypothesised that the picture spread from the blog to Twitter, and that Twitter's "immediacy" allowed the image to go viral "so fast it got out of control".

Response from McDonald's

McDonald's responded to the hoax on 11 June by tweeting "That pic is a senseless & ignorant hoax. McD's values ALL our customers. Diversity runs deep in our culture on both sides of the counter." Despite McDonald's denial, the speed at which the picture spread was increased. McDonald's reiterated their earlier message, tweeting "That Seriously McDonalds picture is a hoax". The photograph became the most highly

trending topic Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, a ...

over the weekend of the 11–12 June, being spread under the hashtags "#SeriouslyMcDonalds" and "#seriouslymcdonalds". The tag was reportedly used some 20 times per-second over the course of the weekend. The picture was eventually removed from

Twitpic TwitPic was a website and app that allowed users to post pictures to the Twitter microblogging service, which at the time of TwitPic's creation could not be posted to Twitter directly. TwitPic was often used by citizen journalists to upload and d ...

, and the speed at which it was spreading declined. Little damage was done by the hoax, which, in addition to McDonald's response, was revealed through Twitter users' own investigations. The image is no longer well known or remembered, due, according to public relations professional Ann Marie van den Hurk, to McDonald's effective response to the image.

Analysis

Linendoll praised the response from McDonald's, saying that

If you're a big corporation and something viral ... happens against you, you have to formulate a plan and respond quickly ... In this case, McDonald's handled it correctly; they used the medium Twitter they were accused on. Time is of the essence. We're not going to the press in the morning. We're going to the press in real time, when it comes to social networking. You have to respond and respond quickly. Well-handled.

Christopher Barger of ''

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'' described McDonald's response as "a textbook statement on how to respond to a rumor in 140 characters", although he felt they could have personalised responses and used other social networks. Van den Hurk also presented the response from McDonald's as an example of how organisations can best deal with social media crises.

References

External links

Cookin' Up Discrimination?
on McServed.com {{McDonalds 2010s controversies in the United States 2011 hoaxes African-American-related controversies Color photographs Internet hoaxes Internet memes June 2011 events in the United States McDonald's Twitter controversies Computer-related introductions in 2009 2011 works 2011 in art 2010s photographs Racial hoaxes