McDonald’s to change Swedish advertising after watchdog censure
McDonald’s conceded the advertisements could cause confusion. In a statement, the global fast food chain confirmed that the actual percentage of beef sourced from farms in Sweden is 45%.
Restaurants, and especially fast food chains, have increasingly been using advertising budgets to emphasise the Swedish origin of meat sold to Swedish customers. This follows November figures from Sweden’s ministry of agriculture, food and fisheries, which showed a fall in demand for imported meat over MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) infections abroad, notably in Danish pig farms. This has prompted consumption of locally produced products to increase.
The ombudsman commenced its investigation following a complaint lodged by a private consumer, Elisabeth Trotzig, the advertising ombudsman told GlobalMeatNews. The complaint, said Trotzig, was based on advertisements on McDonald’s paper tray mats, which carried a captioned picture of a Swedish farmer in a pastoral setting. The caption read: “Somewhere here begins the journey to McDonald’s” and stated that the company “cooperates with over 1,000 Swedish farmers every day of the year”, adding that its burgers always consist of 100% beef.
The ombudsman found this text to be misleading and contrary to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) rules for advertising and marketing communications, said Trotzig. “The fact that McDonald’s may state on its website that the meat it sells is not always of Swedish origin is not the impression one gets from reading the tray mats,” said Trotzig.
While accepting the text may be confusing, McDonald’s denied that it deliberately set out to mislead customers. “The complaint was from a private person who, in our view, misinterpreted the text. The adverts were meant to draw attention to our cooperation with Swedish farmers,” said Staffan Ekstam, McDonald’s Sweden’s marketing manager in a company statement.
McDonald’s, said Ekstam, will fully comply with the ombudsman’s ruling and revise the phrasing in the disputed advertisement. The debate around the ombudsman’s ruling raises the profile of farmed Swedish meat, said Helena Jonsson, chairperson of ‘Lantbrukarnas Riksförbund’ (LRF), Sweden’s farmers’ federation. The LRF, said Jonsson, is looking forward to doing more business with McDonald’s.
