McDonald's Update: Ice Cream Machines & Burgers

Low integrity management and low trust marketing

Let's update a post from three years ago, on McDonald's and the never-ending troubles they have with their Taylor ice cream machines.

So here I am on the other side of the world, in the Philippines.  And you often see Taylor ice cream machines here just as you do in all US McDonald's.  After that first post, I tend to notice these machines.  But yesterday I was in a Jollibee (the largest fast food chain in the country) and I noticed that they had removed their Taylor machine and replaced it with a Carpigiani, an Italian competitor.  Like the one in this photo.  Or see the actual machine, below.

So I asked the manager, Hey what's with the new machine and how long have you had it?  She said, Yeah, it's brand new, we've had it for two weeks.  Our Taylor machine was defective.  I said, Yeah, a lot of them are.

If you are wondering, machines from both companies sell for around $20,000 up to $60,0000 depending on model.  And that is before installation and setup fees, and ongoing maintenance costs. (Grok)

This was the same day that a video went viral of the McDonald's CEO, Chris Kempczinski, supposedly eating the company's newest "product," the Big Arch, with obvious distaste.  Yes, he referred to the burger as a product.  He originally posted the video in early February of this year.  Here is one reaction video:

Burger King also had a fun response.  As Lindey Glenn points out, it is practically guaranteed that Kempczinski does not eat McDonald's offerings.  Ever.  He's no Dave Thomas, or even Donald Trump.

By the way, I met Dave Thomas when I was in college; he always referred to Wendy's products as sandwiches, even the burgers.  Which I found a bit odd, but at least you never heard him refer to any of his burgers as a "product."  Kempczinski might as well be selling tube socks.

I have no doubt that Kempczinski is a smart guy.  But his inability to relate to McDonald's products, franchisees, and customers is concerning.  His unwillingness to correct the ice cream machine situation is disqualifying.  I do not believe this is gross incompetence; rather it appears to be gross misconduct.  Clearly he could solve the problem if he wanted.  But this is not an operational issue; it is an ethical problem.

Note, Dairy Queen also uses Taylor machines, though a different model, without issue.  Same for Wendy's, Burger King, and Chick-fil-A. (Grok)  Someone should insist on a remedy.

You gotta wonder how many Big Macs does the company have to sell in order to pay Kempczinski's daily tab at Michelin-starred brasseries?  McDonald's clearly hates their franchisees and their customers.  So the long history of questionable management continues.

Anyway, here's the Carpigiani machine I saw yesterday:



For reference, here is an older Taylor ice cream machine in a different Jollibee:

For those who do not know, Jollibee is primarily a chicken joint.  But they serve all of the fast food staples, like burgers, fries, and of course, soft serve ice cream.  And rice; nearly everything here comes with rice.  They also do a sweet spaghetti that is very popular with Filipinos.  In the US, where they have around eighty locations, they offer great looking chicken sandwiches.  But sadly, those are not available in the Philippines.

Update, 11 March 2026

Today, Lindey Glenn can explain Kempczinski's reaction to the new Big Arch.  My question is, if the burger is not ready for prime time, why did the CEO allow its market release?  Maybe it is gross incompetence after all.

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Marketing is Not Dead

The forgotten art of an effective television commercial

Today, most British commercials are wholly uninspiring.  Like this, this, this, this, this, and this.  All currently running television campaigns and all dreadful.  I mean for the love of God:  Domin-oh-hoo-hoo.  What is that?  And notice the extremely light product focus in all of these commercials.

There is one Domino's commercial featuring a live hedgehog supposedly coming out of hibernation.  The unappetizing critter makes no sound, but the helpfully provided closed captioning offers his thoughts:  Dominos?  That's it, that's the whole commercial.  It is so bad that no one has added it to Youtube.

Then comes something else entirely.  Created by BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty), led by Creative Director, Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes.  Sure, it is an emotional appeal ad, but at the same time, it is entirely product focused.

Grok offers some background on the campaign.  Find the music here.

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On the Mess that is Craigslist

I detest CraigsList.  Any yet, like millions of us, I use it regularly.  Not because I want to, but rather because there is no alternative.

I often complain about the arrogance of tech companies like Microsoft.  They have become so rich, they no longer really care about their customers.  CraigsList also has incredible arrogance towards its users, derived from monopoly power.  But this is a monopoly based on price zero and size.

Gary Wolf writes about the service in Wired Magazine:

The glory of the site is its size and its price.  But seen from another angle, craigslist is one of the strangest monopolies in history, where customers are locked in by fees set at zero and where the ambiance of neglect is not a way to extract more profit but the expression of a worldview.
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The current strategy for growth—a slow, bloblike, seemingly unstoppable accretion of new craigslist cities, each an exact clone of the others, launched with no marketing or publicity.  Sometimes a new site grows very slowly for a long time.  But eventually listings hit a certain volume, after which the site becomes so familiar and essential that it is more or less taken for granted by everybody except the distressed publishers of local newspapers.  Revenue from newspaper classified ads is off nearly 50 percent in the past decade, a drop that comes to almost $10 billion.  Only a fraction of this loss is because of Newmark's company, but as the largest online classified site, craigslist is easy to blame.
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It is difficult to overstate the scale of this accomplishment.  Craigslist gets more traffic than either eBay or Amazon.  eBay has more than 16,000 employees.  Amazon has more than 20,000.  Craigslist has 30.
...
The long-running tech-industry war between engineers and marketers has been ended at craigslist by the simple expedient of having no marketers.  Only programmers, customer service reps, and accounting staff work at craigslist.  There is no business development, no human resources, no sales.  As a result, there are no meetings.  The staff communicates by email and IM.

Now I love the fact that they don't have marketing types.  But they have a tin ear when it comes to user needs, in no small part because their customer service is a joke.

The CraigsList people argue that they are not a business, but a community service.  But what do you get when you cross a free community service with a business monopoly with a hundred-plus cities?

Evidently the answer is:  Monopolistic anarchy.

I found this article thanks to my friend and blogging mentor, Craig Newmark (no, not the CraigsList idiot savant, but the economics professor).  On his blog, he has pointed out more than once, that if you don't like what you find there, he will gladly refund your money.  And sarcasm aside, his point is so true that it needs no further comment.  And he argues, this applies to CraigsList as well.

However, if I don't like his blog, or any blog, I can go elsewhere.  If I don't like CraigsList, where do I go?  The newspaper?  God forbid.

In fact, I often rail against newspapers on this site.  It's ironic that a company largely responsible for their demise, is so wholly undeserving.
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Cool Ad Watch

Via Copyranter
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On those Pharma Ads

Protectasil (Gardasil) Drug Ad Parody

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