Since its beginnings in 1940, McDonald's has shaped society and culture through its iconic branding and global dominance. This impact has been driven, in part, by the restaurant chain leveraging celebrities and pop-culture collaborations to maintain relevance and increase consumer engagement. In an era where goods have become increasingly expensive, fast food chains have become less useful as a way to get cheap meals. A March 2024 study found that fast food prices have increased by 33% since before the pandemic, something consumers are unhappy with.
McDonald's, in particular, has received many complaints about rising prices, with some customers feeling the brand is moving towards luxury rather than remaining an affordable option. The company addressed the issue in an open letter from President of McDonald’s USA Joe Erlinger, stating that "Inflationary pressures have impacted all sectors of the economy, including ours. Our franchisees (who own and operate more than 95% of all restaurants in the U.S.) set menu prices for their restaurants, which account for the increased costs of running their businesses. In doing so, they work hard to minimize the impact of price increases on our fans."
To address consumer complaints, McDonald’s has launched different value deals to entice consumers to continue buying their food. For example, they created the McDonald's $5 meal deal, where customers receive either a McDouble or a McChicken, a 4-piece nugget, a small fry, and a small drink for only five dollars. Introduced in June 2024, the deal sought to directly compete with Wendy’s Biggie Bag Deal and other fast food deals that have sought to capitalize on the popularity of $5 deals. In doing so, McDonald's hoped to reclaim some market share. The deal has been a success, and orders with a $5 meal deal buy 12% more food than orders without it. It also helped fight the cultural perception that McDonald's had become too expensive for consumers and drove increased foot traffic, creating stronger relationships between consumers and the chain.
Meal deals like these haven’t been McDonald’s only tactic either. They’ve also relied on celebrity advertising. This wasn’t their first time doing this either, as they did the Michael Jordan Chicago-specific McJordan Special in 1992. Since then, however, there haven't been any major branded meal deals. This changed in 2020 with the release of the wildly successful Travis Scott Meal, which — paired with a viral TikTok trend — helped resolve McDonald's as a relevant pop culture brand. It also encouraged McDonald's to make celebrity meals a consistent menu feature. Since then, McDonald's has done celebrity meal collaborations with musicians and musical groups BTS, Saweetie, and the Cardi B and Offset meal. More recently, they’ve introduced the Angel Reese meal, making her the first female athlete with her own McDonald's meal. This meal capitalized on the cultural rise of the WNBA and Reese’s status as a standout athlete with significant Gen Z appeal.
McDonald's hasn’t stopped with celebrities either; they’ve also invested more into collaborations with blockbuster movies like “A Minecraft Movie.” For it, McDonald's released a themed kids' meal and a more substantial “adult” meal, complete with toys and collectibles. While data isn’t yet available on how the meal impacted McDonald's sales, the film’s financial success bodes well for the success of the collaboration.
However, all these changes and new meal deals don’t happen in a vacuum. McDonald’s has been struck by boycotts and controversy worldwide. Since October 2023, the restaurant chain has found itself boycotted by much of the Arab and Muslim community due to select Israel locations providing free food to members of the Israeli Defense Forces. This caused the company to have its first quarterly sales miss in nearly four years in Q1 of 2024. In April of 2024, McDonald's officially purchased all 225 Israel franchises due to further backlash and revenue loss. The company has also gotten into controversy due to a 2024 E. coli outbreak. Despite this, McDonald's continues to succeed due to the stability and growth its meal deals have provided.
To maintain its global dominance, every action taken by McDonald's needs to be rooted in trends and the needs of its target audiences. Getting people to eat McDonald’s takes more than the right food at the right prices; it also requires shaping the culture the brand exists within and seizing the right role in the social and political issues that dominate our current climate. Ultimately, the future of McDonald's hinges less on having specific cheap options or limited-edition items, but more on seizing the right moments — those that spark viral interest and bolster the McDonald's brand.
As McDonald’s prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary in Luxembourg this summer, few may realize that the global fast-food chain has a Luxembourger to thank for creating one of its most-loved products: chicken nuggets. René Arend, a native of Wiltz who trained as a chef in Strasbourg, moved to the United States in 1956. In the land of hamburgers, he worked as a chef for many years at the Whitehall Club in Chicago. His clients included Ray A. Kroc, founder of McDonald's, and Fred L. Turner, its chairman and chief executive.
Arend initially resisted the idea of joining McDonald’s before relenting. "I'm a chef, I don't believe in hamburgers," he said in April 1981, adding: "But when I arrived, I wanted to do for the people on the street what I was doing for the rich." At first, he tried to develop onion nuggets but switched to chicken. It took between 14 and 16 months of tests to perfect the product, with the final version developed in 1979. However, it wasn't until 1983 that nuggets were officially added to the menu in the United States, due to a shortage of chicken meat. The nuggets became available internationally the following year.
Arend didn't stop there. He also came up with the McRib, a pork chop sandwich. Less popular than nuggets, it has nevertheless found a following, particularly in the Grand Duchy and Germany. In the Grand Duchy, McDonald’s began in 1985, with the opening of the first restaurant on Avenue de la Gare on July 17, just a few meters from the central station. Today, there are ten McDonald's across the country. But by the end of this month, this figure will have fallen to nine, with the outlet in the Berchem area closing its doors, following the takeover of the area's two sites by the Kuwaiti group Q8.
After many years with McDonald's, Arend stepped down as executive chef in 2004. The Luxembourg native died in 2016, leaving behind one of the world's most popular recipes. A recipe inspired by Robert C. Baker's research. History books may only remember the name René Arend, but the source of inspiration for the Luxembourg chef was Robert C. Baker. It was this American professor who invented the concept of the nugget in the 1960s in his laboratory at Cornell University. Baker and his student Joseph Marshall created a recipe that enabled nuggets to survive both freezing and frying. Surprisingly, Baker did not patent his recipe for chicken nuggets, instead mailing it to hundreds of companies. It was this recipe that inspired Arend, who opted for the chicken nugget with its four emblematic shapes: the bell, the bone, the ball, and the boot. McDonald's sniffed out the opportunity and quickly patented Arend's slightly modified recipe in 1979.
In addition to its iconic menu items, McDonald's has recently launched a Doce da Casa Sundae in Portugal, inspired by a famous Portuguese dessert. This dessert is available for a limited time until May 26, 2025, and combines McDonald’s ice cream with egg custard and crushed Maria biscuits. The biscuit used in this special edition is supplied by the Portuguese brand Vieira, which is part of McDonald’s network of more than 700 national partners in Portugal. The motto of the new campaign is clear: “The most Portuguese Sundae in the world.” Ana Freitas, marketing manager at McDonald’s Portugal, highlights the importance of this approach: “This product is a tribute to Portugal, to the flavours we grew up with and the traditions that connect us.” The manager also emphasizes the brand’s positioning: “As a global brand with a local presence, McDonald’s adapts to each market and, in Portugal, we value offering national recipes to our consumers.” The objective, according to Ana Freitas, is to reinforce the emotional connection with the Portuguese public, “through a close, authentic and culturally relevant approach.”
