The Times City Diary has found great amusement with this lovely image, which comes towards the top of the rankings when you type McDonald’s on Google Images:
The diary writer then asks the naive question: “Does the world’s most sophisticated PR machine, which has harried even impoverished critics into the courts” … (which I assume is a reference to the McLibel legal dispute in the 80s) … “know about these pictures?” Of course it does. It may not like to see the brand treated in this way, but this is the reality of brand management in the era of consumer empowerment. McDonald’s is also too smart these days to resort automatically to legal action.
McDonald’s appears to receive more than its fair share of unflattering photos on Google Images, but it gets off pretty likely compared with many other brands – try image searches for ’Mastercard’ and ‘Nike ad’ if you want to see what I mean … but be warned, some of the images that appear in the top 20 are not very pleasant. Even the mighty Microsoft is not immune. This image appears at number six in the search rankings … I don’t think this is Steve Jobs …
There are plenty of search marketing specialists out there with advice on how to manipulate the Google search algorithm, to ensure that the more flattering images appear towards the top of the search rankings. Google also offers an image removal service, although this requires the participation of the owners of the website hosting the offending image, which is clearly not an option in many of the more extreme cases.
The final resort for companies or brands, who believe that their reputation is being seriously damaged by negative images – and whilst the McDonald’s images are unflattering, I don’t believe that they are damaging, unlike some of the Mastercard images – is to involve the corporate lawyers. But be warned, the principles of self expression and free speech are vigorously defended in the social media world. The image has to be sufficiently damaging and tasteless to justify the inevitable outcry that will follow any legal action.