When McDonald's launched media network in September, there were more than a few
By Andrew Lipsman ยท November 7, 2026 ยท Curated by George's Blog
When McDonald's launched media network in September, there were more than a few eye rolls.
"Just what we need, another media network" ๐
The company's stated ambition of it being a $1 billion opportunity drew even more skepticism.
But not from me. Here's was my initial take on the news, via Lauren Johnson at AdWeek:
๐๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ญ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ข ๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐บ๐ด๐ต ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ธ ๐๐ช๐ฑ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ด๐ข๐ช๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต $1 ๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ด โ๐ข ๐ค๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บโ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅโ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ข๐ช๐ฏโ๐ด ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐บ๐ด๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต.
โ๐๐ฐ๐ณ ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅโ๐ด, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ข๐ด๐ด๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ-๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ง 14,000 ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉโ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ตโ๐ด ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ญ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐.๐. ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐ฆ๐ณ,โ ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ช๐ฅ. โ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅโ๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ด ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ง๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ค ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ-๐ต๐ฉ๐ณ๐ถ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ช๐ค, ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆโ๐ด ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ด๐ค๐ข๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ตโ๐ด ๐ข๐ต๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐ข๐ฅ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด.โ
๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅโ๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ข๐ญ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ด๐ต๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง ๐ฐ๐ง, ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ต๐ง๐ญ๐ช๐น ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ช๐ด๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ.
โ๐โ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ญ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ช๐ข ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐๐ค๐๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ๐ฅโ๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฌ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต,โ ๐๐ช๐ฑ๐ด๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ด๐ข๐ช๐ฅ.
The reason: McDonald's has what CMOs want--Scale and Cultural Relevance--but without the baggage of performance data. It's a purely non-endemic audience play, and a compelling one given its eye-popping audience scale.
So big, in fact, its rivaled only by Walmart and reaches 50% (!!!) of Americans each month.
Check out my latest in Media, Ads + Commerce on McDonald's surprisingly strong late entry into commerce media.