In news today, McDonalds has just signed a deal with Fox in the US to put cups of iced-coffee in front of the morning news anchors in regional areas.
Executives at the station, one of 12 owned by Meredith Corporation, say the six-month promotion is meant to shore up advertising revenue and, as they told the news staff, will not influence content.
(from the NYT)
My favourite part is this though:
Two cups of coffee, their cubes of ice glinting in the studio lights, now daily stand before the channel’s morning presenters. The presenters conspicuously do not drink from the cups, which is just as well - the cups contain a bogus fluid and fake ice to prevent the cubes melting.
I think that’s so brilliant - although I’m sure it couldn’t taste too much worse than McDonalds coffee. I didn’t even know they did Iced Coffee (although considering I haven’t been inside a McDonalds in about ten years, that’s no big surprise). Bogus liquid is the best description of McDonalds coffee I’ve heard.
Another great bit:
“I would not put it on a straight newscast like my 5 or 10pm news,” Bradshaw said.
I’m going to be a bit of a tv news snob but have you ever seen fox news in the US? It’s hard to actually find the news in between pieces about Britney Spears, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston visiting Starbucks. It’s like news for right-wing teenagers with short attention spans. But this news will somehow be devalued by the anchors not drinking from McDonalds Iced Coffee? The morning is ok, but not the 5pm news!
If anything, the new cups of brown goo will actually class up Fox News.
This post is tagged under: Marketing
Remember when The Panel used to do this? They at least charged $500 which went straight to a charity.