Prepare for the Unexpected | McDonald's

How did McDonald’s end up feeding America for free and losing millions? Let me tell you about one of the biggest marketing fails in history!

In 1984, Los Angeles hosted the Olympics. As you’d expect, big brands rushed to ride the wave of excitement. McDonald’s launched a campaign called "If US Wins, You Win".

Here’s how it worked: Customers received a scratch card with every purchase. The card listed a sport and had three small scratch areas for gold, silver, and bronze prizes.

If Team USA won a medal in that sport, you’d win a reward:

?? Gold = a Big Mac

?? Silver = fries

?? Bronze = a Pepsi

Oh, and to spice things up, there was also a chance to win $10,000!

Here’s where things went wrong. McDonald’s had based this campaign on the 1980 Olympics, where the U.S. didn’t win a single medal. They assumed history would repeat itself. But in 1984, the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympics, leaving the U.S. with less competition. The result? Team USA won a staggering 174 medals out of 221 events!

Customers were showing up with trucks to collect their free meals. McDonald’s branches were running out of food, and their profits? Down the drain. What was supposed to be a win-win turned into a massive loss.

Lesson: Always have a risk plan. No matter how confident you are, things don’t always go as expected. Whether you’re running a marketing campaign or managing your business, think through the “what-ifs.”

My Explanatory Video in Arabic: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/omarsamy_marketing-campaign-advertising-activity-7075467245337927681-mVCm?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Follow Me Omar Samy and My Newsletter for more..