McDonald’s Spent 23 Cents on Advertising for Every Human on Planet Earth in 2001 #marketing
February 10, 2010 2 Comments
In 2001, there were 6.16 billion people on planet earth. In 2001, McDonald’s spent $1.4 billion on direct media advertising: radio, TV, print. That calculates to $0.23 a person for McDonald’s to get their message out to every human.Morgan Spurlock: Companies spend billions to make sure that you know their product. In 2001, on direct media advertising, that’s radio, television and print, McDonald’s spent 1.4 Billion dollars worldwide. On direct media advertising, Pepsi spent more than a billion dollars. To advertise candy, Hershey foods spent a mere 200 million dollars internationally. In its peak year the ‘5 a Day Vegetable Campaigns’ total advertising budget in all media was a lowly 2 million dollars, 100 times less than just the direct media budget of one candy company. Source: Super Size Me
If you were curious about more recent stats (2008), McDonald’s spent a total of 782.6 million on direct marketing (TV, radio, and print advertising). However, they do not account for the marketing costs spent by the local francise themselves…”In addition, significant advertising costs are incurred by franchisees through advertising cooperatives in individual markets.” Source: 2008 Mc’Donald’s Financial Report
Got me thinking…how much do churches spend per capita in their local areas to get the Gospel message out? How about worldwide?
Allow me to put it in perspective...if there are 122,000 people living in Topeka, KS. If you multiply that by $0.23 a person (same as McDonald’s does)…it would be like a local church in Topeka spending $28,060 to get the gospel message out. That’s $540 a week; or $77 a day.
Vertical Resonator 
Light show, Women’s LOL, Fall Festival, Spring Fling, School landscaping, Topeka Rescue Mission, Youth for Christ, Young Life, etc. I don’t know if they equal $28,000 but are probably more effective than a direct advertising campaign.
Good thoughts. I was thinking when we took our kids to McDonald’s the first time they didn’t recognize the place. They didn’t know anything about french fries, Ronald McDonald, or Happy Meals. However, since WE (the parents), already had a relationship / history with McDonald’s we thought they they would like it. Now the kids love it. Every time we go the kid’s jump and are so excited to eat there.
My thought is we need the finances to get the message out, but at the SAME time we need relationships with people in order to be effective. What the places/organizations are good examples of places or event that put relationship building & finances together in order for the message to go forth.
Maybe someone else will have a more concrete thought?