Skip navigation
McDonald’s spearheads coalition to benefit refugees

McDonald’s spearheads coalition to benefit refugees

Participants to raise funds for World Food Program efforts in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Yemen

McDonald’s Corp. has spearheaded the creation of the first global campaign supporting the World Food Program, tying into the International Day of Peace on Monday, Sept. 21.

The Oak Brook, Ill.-based quick-service operator led the formation of an alliance of companies from several different industries that all agreed to donate TV ad time or digital space to promote the WFP’s efforts to raise funds to provide food for refugees of conflict in the Middle East.

“McDonald's wanted to do something to commemorate this day, and wanted to pull together some other partners and reach out across industry lines to really show the impact that companies and consumers together can have an issue like this,” M.J. Altman, a spokeswoman for WFP USA, told Nation’s Restaurant News.

Reached by phone on Monday, Altman said early feedback “has been enormous and very positive.”

McDonald’s had previously rebuffed an invitation from rival Burger King to partner on a Peace Day initiative to create a mash-up McDonald’s Big Mac and Burger King Whopper burger. The WFP listed Burger King as one of the corporate supporters of the McDonald’s-led consortium, however.

Instead of collaborating with Burger King, McDonald’s reached out to the United Nations and the WFP to see how it could help in the global refugee crisis, described as the most severe since World War II.

The company commissioned the creation of a 30-second promotional ad, with a voiceover by actor Liam Neeson, that asks consumers to donate to the WFP at wfp.org/peace.

“If we can stop hunger, we can start peace,” Neeson says in the animated video, which was created by ad agency TBWA and does not mention McDonald’s or any of the other corporate supporters by name.

“The video is truly being seeing around the world, and for the WFP, this is the first time in the agency’s history that a unified campaign is airing across the globe in four different languages,” Altman said. “It's pretty exciting.”

The video was expected to appear in 40 different countries, in Mandarin, English, Spanish and Arabic versions.

Jeff Mochal, senior director of global external communications at McDonald’s, told Nation’s Restaurant News that the ad “has the potential to reach more than 300 million people worldwide.”

Companies that the WFP said are supporting the program include Burger King, Cargill, DreamWorks Animation, Facebook, Google, MasterCard, McCain Foods, McDonald's, ad agency OMD, Twitter, TBWA and United Airlines.

The WFP said all donations will go to WFP’s emergency response fund that is used to support operations in and around Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen.

“The private sector has a significant role to play in ending hunger and promoting peace," Jay Aldous, WFP director of private sector partnerships, said in a statement. “And this global effort is a powerful example of brands coming together with one voice to make a tangible impact in the lives of vulnerable people.”

The ads were slated to run for one day only, but Mochal of McDonald’s said all of the assets created for the effort, including the TV spot, will be owned by the WFP, which could continue to use them.

The International Day of Peace, also known as World Peace Day, was created by the United Nations as “a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples,” according to a statement on the U.N. website.

Meanwhile, Burger King proceeded with its creation of a mash-up burger in partnership with restaurant chains Denny’s, Wayback Burgers, Krystal and Giraffas Brazilian Grill. Burger King was slated to give out 1,500 Peace Day Burgers at a pop-up shop in Atlanta and make a donation to the nonprofit organization Peace One Day, according to reports.

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish