Multi-Million Dollar Campaign Aimed At 'Super Size Me' Claims Against McDonald's

By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
June 14, 2004

In response to the McDonald's-bashing documentary entitled "Super Size Me," the leading fast food restaurant empire is scheduled to release a multi-million dollar marketing campaign in response to the charges made by the film's producer.

McDonald's is the focus of independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's controversial movie about how his body reacted to eating at the fast food restaurant for every meal for thirty days in a row.

Spurlock was inspired to shoot this $65,000 film and conduct the experiment after a pair of lawsuits were filed against McDonald's by two obese teenagers last year.

Since its limited theatrical release on May 7, the unrated "Super Size Me" has generated more than $7.5 million without any marketing dollars and in less than 200 theaters on a weekly average since its release.

Despite having such a small distribution, the movie broke into the top ten highest grossing films for four weeks in a row in May and is still performing well, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

Three commercials have been cut by McDonald's and will begin airing Monday, including one to be shown to moviegoers with the trailers.

These ads feature McDonald's Australia CEO Guy Russo who alleges that Spurlock's actions in the film were "stupid."

"No one eats McDonald's food three times a day, every day, and no one should," Russo exclaimed in a statement on Friday. "We believe, and have always believed, that McDonald's can be eaten as part of a well-balanced diet."

Admonishing the filmmaker for his reckless actions, Russo added that Spurlock should blame himself for taking such drastic actions.

"What Mr. Spurlock set out to do, which was double his daily calorie intake, deliberately not exercise and over-eat, was totally irresponsible," Russo continued.

This is the first actual response from McDonald's to "Super Size Me" since the highly-acclaimed independent film surfaced.

However, the original strategy by McDonald's has been to ignore the film, but consumer research conducted by the fast food giant found that most of their customers viewed their lack of response as an acknowledgment of the movie's claims.

As a result, Russo watched the movie earlier this month and decided to take action to protect the good name of the company he heads in Australia.

"We've been taking the issue of obesity seriously for a few years now," Russo argued.

He points to the fact that McDonald's serves fresh salads and low-fat breakfast options while offering their customers nutritional labeling.

Despite these efforts, Russo said he is miffed that an independent American filmmaker would blatantly attack the brand of McDonald's in such a dishonest way.

"If someone from America produces a film, and then comes out to Australia and attacks us, I'm not going to take that sitting down," Russo expressed.

There are close to 700 McDonald's restaurants in Australia that serve more than a million customers each day. The company boasts annual sales of $1.7 billion.