Writers, be like McDonald's

I'LL MAKE IT MAKE SENSE

I was in college when Super Size Me came out. If that title doesn’t ring a bell, Super Size Me was a documentary that came out in 2004 that followed indie filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock, for one full month where he only ate McDonald’s. When I say only, I mean he ate McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner for thirty straight days and supplemented that diet by walking about 2k/day.

What happened at the end of that month? Spurlock gained over twenty pounds and his overall health seriously deteriorated. Fat deposits increased in his liver, his mental health suffered, and he captured all of it on film.

I know this sounds a bit ridiculous, but it’s hard to put into words what kind of impact this had on culture and on McDonald’s, itself. First, Spurlock’s film was nominated for an Oscar and won several other film awards. When viewers saw the dramatic shift in Spurlock’s health, it led to court cases being brough against McDonald’s. It didn’t matter that none of those court cases actually won, the damage to McDonald’s reputation was immediate and irreparable.

All of this was happening at a time when obesity had been declared an epidemic in the U.S. People were looking for someone to blame for the deteriorating health of America and Spurlock’s film shot an arrow through McDonald’s yellow arch. I vividly remember the pulse of North America back then. I was in school in western New York via Toronto and it felt like all anyone could talk about was how McDonald’s (and fast food in general) was killing our society. Someone had to pay.

I also remember pretty clearly how McDonald’s reacted. Salads started popping up on the menu. They ran ad campaigns with celebrities eating healthy options from their menu. They brought in world class chefs to show that McDonald’s wasn’t all about Big Macs and French Fries. In other words, they were bending to the weight of the criticism and they did this for over a decade.

Then a switch went off and McDonald’s did something I’ve rarely seen any major corporation do, especially in today’s “please everyone” era. They said “fuck what everyone thinks.” They realized that at the end of the day, they’re McDonald’s. And even in the lowest of times, 68 million people still visited their stores every day.

So what did they actually do? They hired a marketing firm and that firm did extensive interviews with people who were fans of McDonald’s. Let me be super clear right now: they didn’t speak to people who ate McDonald’s, they spoke to people who self-identified as fans the same way you would to a musician or sports team.

The common thread they pulled from these interviews is that no matter who you are, every fan of McDonald’s had a favourite order. What did McDonald’s do with that information? In 2020, they partnered with rapper Travis Scott, who was their first celebrity partnership since Michael Jordan way back in 1992.

Scott’s favourite meal was a quarter pounder with cheese, bacon, and lettuce, with fries (with barbecue sauce for dipping) and a Sprite. Yeah, that’s a long way from the kale salads they were trying to push. The campaign ran for a month and worked to the tune of increasing revenue by $50 million and adding $10 billion to McDonald’s market cap. (They also did this with other celebrities following the success of Travis Scott.)

Okay, so what does this have to do with writing? Everything.

We’re trying everything we can to build an audience, but who are we really speaking to? What is it about your writing — your blog, your newsletter, even your books — that readers are really connecting with?

And here’s the question I really want you to grapple with: Are you writing authentically enough for people not to like you?

Sit with that one for a minute. Really think about it. Because if you are writing from a place of honesty and personal truth, it means that your beliefs, your morals, and a big part of who you are is showing up on the page, regardless of what you’re writing. And if you’re expressing that truth in its rawest form, it means inevitably, and maybe unfortunately, people are not just going to disagree, they’re going to dislike. Can you handle that?

Because there’s a price for walking a tightrope. The balancing act you’re trying to perfect means you’re only a mild gust away from falling off that rope and there is no safety net because you’re playing both sides. In 2024, people are trying to escape the noise of the internet and retreat into spaces they feel seen and safe, even if, and especially if, those spaces are far more concentrated. They want a community that reflects their precise passions and beliefs, and as a writer, it’s your job to use your words as a calling. You are safe here. You are heard here. You are seen here. You are celebrated here. That’s not possible if you’re still trying to placate.

If you are writing from that place and are ready to deal with the outcomes, then here’s the next thing you need to think about: how can you continue serving the readers that absolutely love you? The ones who are there for the Quarter Pounder with Cheese and don’t give a shit about the salads?

McDonald’s used what they already knew people loved, but turned it up a bit. They gave their fans Travis Scott. It connected so well that people would go to the drive through and play a popular Travis Scott song (Sicko Mode) and by the time they pulled up to the window, their orders would be ready.

None of us here are spending millions of dollars on celebrity marketing, but what is your Travis Scott? What can you do to further ingratiate and celebrate your readers? How can you use what you’re already doing but turn it up so it feels new and exciting?

That’s how you build. That’s how you grow your community with readers who are excited to engage with and share your work. As crazy as it sounds, you can find writing success by trying to be more like McDonald’s.

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The inspiration for this piece came from a podcast I listen to called Trapital. Check them out.