The MacFail

The title of this article could have been: " But what the hell did MacDonald's community managers do?".
Indeed, MacDonald's, well-known for being an excellent communicator, just made the biggest internet failure of its history. The brand launched a social media campaign in order to boost its image: the #McDstories. The principle was simple and attractive. Customers were asked to share on Twitter their best personal experiences on the famous fast-food restaurants. Except that it was a little bit too successful, too crowded. And not very effective in terms of image imrpoving. Indeed, instead of sharing nice stories, people started talking about their worst experiences at MacDonald's. Soon it became out of control. Soon it became a complete disaster.

For instance, here is one of the tweets: “One time I walked into McDonalds and I could smell Type 2 diabetes floating in the air and I threw up.” #McDStories @SkipSullivan.
When facing such comments, MacDonald's decided to stop the campaign. But it was too late. The story was already published in the New York Times and everyone knew about the MacFail. A good lesson to be learned: always have efficient community managers prepared to react quickly when launching such large scale campaings...

By Natacha

Source: M, le Magazine du Monde