McDonald's (USA) Missed Opportunity for Genuine Word of Mouth

Spike Jones on the awesome Brains on Fire blog rightly takes McDonald's to task for its current US McRib sandwich "farewell" campaign . What's unfortunate is that they make it LOOK as if it is a fan club that is behind the campaign, when in fact, it is a McDonald's sponsored site (you must take pains to notice the disclaimer on the bottom right of the page; see red arrow in the pic above). This is not a grass roots campaign, but an astroturfing (need proxy) campaign. Here's a bit about the agency behind it.




Why not empower Mcrib fans to share their love with the world? McDonald's has plenty of fans. Check out the kinda weird, but nonetheless addictive McChronicles blog or do a Google search for "mcrib fans" and you will see sites like "McRib: the Sandwich of Kings." You can even find the love in wine discussion forums. The people behind these sites and discussions are the ones who likely would have naturally "come to the rescue" of the sandwich. Why not reate a site that makes it easy for fans to share their stories (instead just send pics which are surprisingly few on the current site) and tell their friends about it? Get the media in touch with these fanatics so they can hear true fans' passion and share it with the world.

To make a web site that looks like consumer generated media means that McDondald's understands CGM's power and importance. So why fake it?