McDonald's PR and Marketing Strategy: QSR Leader Profile

McDonald's PR and marketing strategy pairs the world's largest restaurant footprint with value offers, loyalty and celebrity-meal marketing, backed by agency partners including Wieden+Kennedy New York and a PR relationship with Golin that dates to 1957. It runs more than 45,000 restaurants in over 100 countries, about 95% run by independent owners, under chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski. In Q1 2026, global comparable sales rose 3.8%.

Loyalty members drove more than $38 billion in systemwide sales over the trailing twelve months, the headline number behind its marketing today.

Last updated October 20, 2026.

Who runs McDonald's and how large is it?

Chris Kempczinski is chairman and CEO of McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD), which is headquartered in Chicago. Richard and Maurice McDonald founded the restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940, and Ray Kroc built the franchising model after joining in 1954 and buying the company in 1961.

Kempczinski became CEO in November 2019 after Steve Easterbrook, who had run the company since 2015.

How do value and loyalty drive McDonald's in 2026?

McDonald's is growing in 2026 by combining value offers, loyalty and menu launches. Kempczinski credited "value leadership, breakthrough marketing, and menu innovation" for the first-quarter result, according to Axios coverage of the earnings release.

• Loyalty: members in 70 markets generated more than $9 billion in sales in the first quarter alone.
• Menu: the Big Arch Burger debuted during the quarter, alongside new refreshers and crafted sodas.
• Cultural moments: K-pop themed meals launched on March 31, 2026 and, per Placer.ai analysis cited by Axios, helped drive the chain's busiest week of the year so far.

The common thread is that each promotion pushes customers into the app, which feeds the loyalty data the company now reports as a headline number.

How did McDonald's handle the 2024 E. coli outbreak?

McDonald's handled the late-2024 E. coli outbreak by acting fast, naming the cause and keeping its CEO visible. According to EPR's Q2 2026 Restaurant Crisis Recovery Benchmark, the outbreak was linked to slivered onions from a single supplier, McDonald's pulled the ingredient within 24 hours of CDC notification and identified the supplier, Taylor Farms, publicly.

The benchmark records 21 days to neutral coverage and gives McDonald's the highest score in the study, 89 out of 100. Its four-part playbook was speed of disclosure, named-executive visibility, supplier transparency and a visible return-to-normal milestone.

Which crisis and litigation cases define McDonald's PR?

Three cases define McDonald's crisis and litigation record, and each is now a teaching example.

• Liebeck v. McDonald's: the 1994 hot coffee verdict became shorthand for frivolous lawsuits despite a record that tells a different story. EPR's hot coffee case study covers the litigation PR lessons.
• The Easterbrook dispute: McDonald's fired Steve Easterbrook in November 2019 and later sued him after concluding it had been misled about his conduct. In December 2021 he agreed to return more than $105 million in cash and equity awards, per Bloomberg and Fortune. The company kept its operating CEO separate from the legal case and framed the suit as a governance obligation.
• The 2010 Shrek glasses recall: McDonald's recalled about 12 million promotional glasses over cadmium concerns in a voluntary, full-scope recall, a template for how promotional recalls are communicated.

Which campaigns and relationships define its marketing?

McDonald's marketing is defined by long-running mechanics, celebrity meals and a long agency relationship. Each item below has its own EPR coverage.

• Monopoly: the promotion has run in the United States since 1987 and is one of the most-imitated promotional mechanics in fast food.
• Celebrity meals: the Travis Scott Meal in 2020 and the BTS Meal in 2021 set the template competitors copied.
• CEO video: EPR's Big Arch Bite case study examines Kempczinski's own social video for the Big Arch launch.
• Community work: the McVatican case covers McDonald's feeding Rome's homeless near the Vatican.
• Agency history: EPR's profile of Al Golin and the McDonald's account covers the PR relationship that began in 1957.

EPR's fast food AI search scorecard scored McDonald's 86, the top result among the chains it measured.

Which agencies shape McDonald's PR and marketing?

McDonald's runs its marketing through a roster of agency partners, and its PR heritage runs through Golin. Wieden+Kennedy New York became the lead creative agency for the U.S. business in 2019, replacing We Are Unlimited, the bespoke Omnicom agency formed in 2016 to serve the account. W+K later added Canada in 2023 and the U.S. Happy Meal business in 2024, and joined McDonald's Australian roster in January 2025, per AMI.

On the PR side, EPR's profile of Al Golin covers the Golin relationship that began in 1957, the longest-running agency relationship on the McDonald's account.

What risks does McDonald's manage?

McDonald's manages risks that come with scale, and its tools for each are well developed.

• Value perception. Years of price increases drew criticism, and the company answered with value offers, a response reflected in its 2026 results.
• Franchise relations. With about 95% of restaurants run by independent owners, communication with operators is its own discipline. EPR's franchise crisis recovery guide and Subway franchise PR case cover the wider pattern.
• Food safety and litigation. The 2024 outbreak and decades of lawsuits show why McDonald's invests in standing crisis infrastructure.

How does McDonald's compare with other QSR leaders?

McDonald's has the largest restaurant count and the highest crisis recovery score of the five brands below. Counts are the latest figures cited on each profile, and scores come from EPR's Q2 2026 benchmark.

Related EPR coverage

• The McDonald's hot coffee case: the litigation PR template that still defines the category.
• McDonald's CEO Big Arch Bite case study: a CEO social video examined.
• Al Golin and the McDonald's PR account: the longest-running agency relationship.
• McVatican: McDonald's feeds Rome's homeless near the Vatican.
• Restaurant Crisis Recovery Benchmark Q2 2026: McDonald's scored 89.
• Fast food AI search scorecard: McDonald's 86, Chipotle 71.
• Chipotle, Wendy's, Domino's and Starbucks: the other QSR profiles in this series.
• Burger King marketing strategy and Dunkin' PR strategy: more QSR brand cases.
• Subway franchise PR and franchise crisis recovery: how franchise systems manage reputation.
• Restaurant crisis communications, the crisis PR hub and food industry PR: the wider discipline and category.
• The Platform Authority Graph: how AI engines decide which brands get cited.