12505: BHM 2015—Mickey D’s.

Chicago Magazine published “The Company Man”—the remarkable rise and fall of McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson. Nice. It’s the perfect McBHM tribute.

12453: Super Bowl McShit.

This Super Bowl XLIX Pay With Lovin’ commercial is a Pile of McShit. Wonder if outgoing CEO Don Thompson will receive a lovin’ hug and free Big Mac on March 1.

12447: Burger King Is A Twit.

Adweek reported Burger King tweeted a snarky remark in reference to outgoing Mickey D’s CEO Don Thompson. Um, Burger King is hardly a stranger to playing CEO musical chairs. Plus, the fast feeder’s recent sales bump—fueled by the reintroduction of Chicken Fries—doesn’t exactly indicate a turnaround warranting such flame-broiled bravado. Although at least they didn’t recruit Mary J. Blige to hawk the Chicken Fries.

12443: No Lovin’ For Don Thompson…?

Advertising Age reported Mickey D’s CEO Don Thompson is leaving the Golden Arches as the fast feeder continues seeking a turnaround. One has to wonder how Leo Burnett and DDB still survive, as the advertising really sucks. Hell, at this point, even Ronald McDonald should be on the McHot Seat. Ironically (or obscenely, depending upon your personal perspective), Thompson will remain on board through Black History Month—then again, Mickey D’s celebrates 365Black.

McDonald’s Chief Executive Don Thompson Departs

Chief Brand Officer Easterbrook Takes Helm As Chain Seeks Turnaround

By Maureen Morrison

McDonald’s top executive Don Thompson is out at McDonald’s.

Mr. Thompson will leave his post effective March 1 and will be replaced by McDonald’s veteran Steve Easterbrook, currently chief brand officer.

The move comes as McDonald’s makes sweeping changes to turn around its ailing business.

Mr. Thompson’s departure is the latest in a series of senior executive changes in the 18 months at the fast feeder. Deborah Wahl, U.S. CMO, replaced Neil Golden early in 2014. Mike Andres was named U.S. president last year after Jeff Stratton departed the chain. The company also recruited Atif Rafiq to be McDonald’s chief digital officer, a newly created role to guide the company’s digital strategy. Marlena Peleo-Lazar, chief creative officer, left last year and has not been replaced.

Mr. Thompson’s departure follows a round of layoffs earlier this month at the company’s headquarters that resulted in the loss of 63 jobs, part of an effort to cut costs by $100 million. Some executives familiar with the matter said that the chain has been conducting layoffs in departments including marketing, but the company did not respond to a request for comment.

“Steve is a strong and experienced executive who successfully led our U.K. and European business units and the board is confident that he can effectively lead the company to improved financial and operational performance,” said Andrew McKenna, McDonald’s non-executive chairman.

Mr. Thompson is a longtime Golden Arches exec who joined the company in 1990 and rose through the ranks. In 2006 he was named president of the company’s U.S. operations and in 2010 was tapped as president of the corporation. That made him No. 2 to then-top exec Jim Skinner. Mr. Skinner stepped down in 2012 and Mr. Thompson added the CEO title to his duties.

Just last week Mr. Thompson during the company’s earnings call said that 2015 would be a year of “regaining momentum.” For 2014, global same-store sales decreased 1.0% and in the fourth quarter and U.S. same-store sales fell 1.7%. McDonald’s hasn’t had a positive sales quarter in the U.S. since third quarter 2013, when it posted a 0.7% bump.

The move comes as McDonald’s is in the midst of a marketing refresh in the U.S. that includes a spot in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Mr. Easterbrook is currently senior exec VP-chief brand officer. In that role, he has been leading McDonald’s efforts to elevate its marketing, advance menu innovation, and create an infrastructure for its digital initiatives, according to a statement.

Mr. Easterbrook was actually returning to that role. He rejoined McDonald’s in April 2013 after stints as CEO at Japanese noodle restaurant chain Wagamama and as CEO of U.K. chain Pizza Express. When he left McDonald’s in September 2011, he was president of McDonald’s Europe, a post he was elevated to after only three months as global chief brand officer.

Mr. Thompson said in a statement: “It’s tough to say goodbye to the McFamily, but there is a time and season for everything. I am truly confident as I pass the reins over to Steve, that he will continue to move our business and brand forward.”

Other executive changes announced Wednesday include, Pete Bensen, senior exec VP-chief financial officer shifted to the newly created role of chief administrative officer. Kevin Ozan, who currently serves as senior VP-corporate controller, moves to exec VP-CFO.

11153: Mickey D’s CEO Grilled.

From Advertising Age…

McDonald’s CEO: ‘The Way You Describe Us Is Not Who We Are’

Thompson Answers Critics Charging Chain with Contributing to Obesity, ‘Predatory’ Marketing

By Maureen Morrison

McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson delivered a pointed retort to critics at the chain’s annual shareholders meeting Thursday morning: “The way you describe us is not who we are.”

Mr. Thompson was responding to critics who say the chain markets unfairly to kids and exploits children of color in its marketing. Corporate Accountability International, a consumer advocacy group that routinely criticizes McDonald’s for marketing to kids, was on hand at the meeting to confront the company about its marketing and issue a proposal. Like last year, CAI brought a proposal up for vote that would call on the company to issue a report assessing the chain’s impact on public health. And like last year, it was struck down, this time with 6.3% of shareholders voting for the proposal.

After Mr. Thompson was asked by a CAI representative when the company will stop targeting kids and undermining childrens’ health, he said: “The way you describe us is not who we are.”

McDonald’s—and many other fast-food chains—for years has been under fire for marketing directly to kids, particularly with its Happy Meal, TV ads and, in recent years, online games. But the chain has said it’s made strides through a modified Happy Meal announced in 2011 that includes apple slices and low-fat milk. It also last year launched Happy Meal ads that focused on nutrition and highlighted the apples and milk.

Though it’s a common occurrence for critics to call on the company to reform its marketing tactics, Mr. Thompson said the issue of kids of color hit close to home for him when he was asked: “CEO Thompson, when is McDonald’s going to stop its aggressive marketing to communities of color?”

The question was posed by Michelle Dyre, a young African-American woman and self-described millennial who recently completed an internship at Corporate Accountability International.

“Especially outrageous is McDonald’s targeting children of color,” she said during the Q&A session. “Children of color are already more likely to live in environments where healthy food is less available. That they are more likely to develop diet-related diseases than their white counterparts should be no surprise considering how McDonald’s overwhelmingly targets them with predatory marketing.”

Mr. Thompson, an African-American, said that McDonald’s has not and will not try to “target people of color with subversive tactics.” He began his response by saying that the issue hits close to home, followed by, “I wonder why.”

“I grew up in the neighborhood,” said Mr. Thompson, a native Chicagoan who is from Cabrini Green, a low-income public housing project. He said that his family often couldn’t even afford McDonald’s. He added that though there needs to be more fresh foods available to people who grew up in circumstances like his, “the epidemic of obesity is not about McDonald’s.”

Ms. Dyre also brought up athletes that appear in McDonald’s marketing such as LeBron James, Gabby Douglas and Venus Williams. “Not only does McDonald’s use athletes of color in advertising such as Gabrielle Douglas, Venus Williams and LeBron James, it also invokes culturally inappropriate stereotypes and borrows liberally from hip-hop culture, to aggressively target children of color.” Mr. Thompson said that the athletes “don’t view us as the brand you view us as…. We’re not the brand that you describe.”

Other critics asked Mr.Thompson when the chain would leave children alone and let parents decide what’s best for them. Mr. Thompson noted that McDonald’s is part of the Children’s Food and Beverage Initiative—a marketing-industry self-regulation group—also noting that the average McDonald’s customer visits the chain three to four times per month, and thus McDonald’s cannot shoulder all the blame for the obesity epidemic. “We’re not the cause of obesity,” he said, adding that the chain doesn’t market unjustly to kids. He said that in recent years the chain hasn’t included Ronald McDonald in ads and noted that it offers apple slices and low-fat milk in its Happy Meals. He added that the chain offers a $1 side salad and also recently unveiled its Egg White Delight McMuffin, which has egg whites and fewer calories than the standard McMuffin.

Other adversaries included a group of protesters outside the meeting that called for $15 per hour wages and the right to form unions without interference—a move that’s part of a campaign called Fast Food Forward. A similar group protested outside of Wendy’s annual meeting Thursday.

McDonald’s wasn’t just barraged with accusations, though. The Humane Society appeared at the annual meeting, not to criticize, but to applaud the company for being a pioneer among fast-food chains to end the widely criticized practice of using gestation crates, which give confined pigs little to no movement for extended periods of time. Since McDonald’s announced the policy to phase out the practice, more than 50 other major pork buyers in the country followed the chain’s footsteps, said a representative of the Humane Society.

The accolades didn’t go unnoticed by McDonald’s. Mr Thompson said the company appreciates the recognition and Chief Operating Officer Tim Fenton said, “We are an industry leader and we take that seriously.”

10066: Diversity On Mickey D’s Menu.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Don Thompson, Mickey D’s next CEO, credits diversity for the burger chain’s success. So how does Thompson feel about the utter lack of diversity at his lead advertising agencies?

McDonald’s next CEO credits diversity for fast-food giant’s success

By Francine Knowles | Business Reporter

Don Thompson, who in July will become the first African-American chief executive officer at McDonald’s Corp., credits diversity with fueling innovation at the world’s biggest hamburger chain.

Delivering the keynote at the Chicago Urban League annual luncheon Wednesday, he said diversity has been and remains a business imperative at the company that has produced payoffs. Among those payoffs are helping expand its menu choices and helping the company’s operating income grow 10 percent last year and earnings per share grow 11 percent.

Forty-five percent of McDonald’s owner-operated franchisees are women- and minority-owned companies, and 55 percent of McDonald’s food and paper purchases are made from minority- and women-owned vendor companies giving them a big slice of McDonald’s more than $9 billion annual shopping bill in the U.S., he told the gathering.

Half of McDonald’s board is made up of women and minorities, and the company has been recognized as among the top companies for multicultural female managers, he shared.

But diversity isn’t about “chasing the number, but chasing the insight, the experience, the background,” he said “You don’t get products like what we’ve done, you don’t create some of the newer products without having the insight. You have to have that diversity,” and that extends in and outside the U.S. he said.

He pointed to salads, which he said women at McDonald’s played a key role in getting on the menu.

He noted McDonald’s has 160 products in its global pipeline, including Chicken McBites, which originated in Australia, kiwi pops sold in Europe; and blueberry oatmeal, which could appear on the market in a couple of weeks.

The impact of diversity is apparent relative to menu and flavors, “relative to customer relevance, to architectural design, to community outreach, to how we address certain critical issues that may face the brand,” Thompson said.

“Our intent to reflect the demographics of the customers we serve has never been stronger, and that’s something that we do because it’s a business imperative… If you have a diverse team, your business results will be much better. That’s why we were No. 1 on the Dow last year.”

McDonald’s announced in March that Thompson will become CEO following the retirement of current CEO Jim Skinner June 30.

Thompson is a 22-year veteran of McDonald’s. He has served as president and COO since January 2010, directing global strategy and operations for more than 33,000 McDonald’s restaurants in 119 countries. He previously served as president of McDonald’s USA.

Thompson spent part of his childhood in the neighborhood surrounding the Cabrini Green Housing project. His grandmother moved him to Indianapolis from Chicago when he was about 10 because she feared gang influence in the neighborhood in the 1970s, Thompson once told Black Enterprise magazine.

In other news at the luncheon, Chicago Urban League President and CEO Andrea Zopp used the occasion to call on employers to provide summer jobs for Chicago area teens. Young people need to develop the skills to become innovators, skills they can only get through on-the-job experiential learning, Zopp said.

9922: Don Thompson, Big Mac On Campus.

From The Chicago Sun-Times…

New McDonald’s boss is a fry guy

By Sandra Guy | Business Reporter

Don Thompson was a pretty smart guy — at the time a designer of radar jamming systems for Northrop Corp. in Rolling Meadows.

But he didn’t understand the call he got from a corporate recruiter who talked about things a guy with an electrical engineering degree from Purdue would get excited about: robotics, control circuitry and feedback loops.

He assumed the job was with aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Douglas.

“When should I come to St. Louis for the interview?” Thompson asked.

“St. Louis?” the recruiter asked.

“Yeah, isn’t that where McDonnell Douglas is?”

Replied the recruiter: “This is McDonald’s hamburgers.”

Well, said Thompson, “You got the wrong guy, because I’m not flipping hamburgers for anybody.”

In an interview with Black Enterprise magazine in 2007, Thompson explained he was concerned about how his grandmother would feel. Raising Thompson, she moved with him to Indianapolis when he was about 10 because she feared gang influence in his Chicago neighborhood in the 1970s. “She gave everything she had to get me into and through Purdue,” he said.

Thompson’s grandmother can relax. After 22 years at Oak Brook-based McDonald’s, her grandson was tapped this week to become CEO of the world’s largest hamburger chain — the first African American to hold the post.

Rosa Martin, 96, said Thursday she was so happy, she was crying.

“I raised him from two weeks old,” she said. “I must have done something right.”

“It is Thompson’s life mission to do what he can to help others, just as others have been committed to him,” said Katey Assem, executive director of the CSU Foundation, a nonprofit arm of Chicago State University, where Thompson has donated his time.

Assem recalled how Thompson chose a struggling student to mentor when he volunteered for a university leadership program. He helped the young man with his studies, took him to church and paid for his education.

“As a mentor, Don took the kid who was struggling,” Assem said. “He never took the kid with a 4.5 GPA or at the top of the class.”

Thompson’s efforts paid off when the student graduated with a degree in electrical engineering, the same degree that Thompson, 48, had earned at Purdue. CSU recognized Thompson last year for his mentoring work and his contributions to scholarship funds. At the event, he talked to students about the importance of faith, hard work, staying in school and listening to mentors.

Thompson has been mentored by McDonald’s current CEO, Jim Skinner, 67, who announced Wednesday that he is retiring June 30 after a 41-year career at the Golden Arches.

Thompson has moved several times as he worked his way up, got a taste of overseas markets as head of the Restaurant Systems Group and is credited with persuading franchisees to invest in McDonald’s “dollar menu” in 2002 to turn around the company after it had expanded too aggressively. Yet he is known for leveraging his analytical skills to change strategy, such as when he agreed with franchisees to take the double cheeseburger off the dollar menu and sell it for $1.19.

He was promoted to president of McDonald’s USA in 2006 and to president and chief operating officer in January 2010, overseeing 33,000 restaurants in 119 countries.

Thompson, who will become the sixth African-American CEO among today’s Fortune 500 company leaders, worked on the robotics of moving vast amounts of food throughout the McDonald’s chain. He later oversaw a test of self-service kiosks, introduced a shrimp burger in Japan and led the introduction of premium coffee.

First, though, he really did have to flip burgers. As many corporate employees do in an accelerated management program, Thompson worked at a Mickey D’s in Chicago for six months before assuming his real job.

“I turned in my suit and tie for a crew uniform,” Thompson recalled in a 2008 interview with Franchise Times. He said he was “trained by 16- and 17-year-olds on how to make french fries and Big Macs.”