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CNN Live At Daybreak

McDonald's Looks to Rebuild Trust with Customers

Aired August 22, 2001 - 07:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: McDonald's may have been the victim of a scam but it's still having to do some damage control after revelations that a marketing firm rigged its Monopoly giveaway game.

What is the reaction in the drive-thru line?

CNN's Anne McDermott fills that order.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Y'all are some liars. McDonald's, y'all are some liars. Y'all messed up.

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): OK, some are taking this hard -- these two Los Angeles sisters, for example.

But how about this French tourist?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (speaking in French)

MCDERMOTT: Translation?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He thinks it's totally rotten.

MCDERMOTT: And some kids are crushed.

GABRIEL LERES, JR. HIGH STUDENT: They shouldn't be ripping off people because we're only kids. Yes.

MCDERMOTT: And this air-conditioning repairman?

EUGENE ROYTSHTEYN, AIR CONDITIONING TECHNICIAN: It's unbelievable. I mean, it's a big corporation. I don't understand.

MCDERMOTT: They do know McDonald's people aren't to blame, but they played the games, they dreamed of the diamonds they'd win, the places they'd see. And in the case of this computer expert, it was all about the money.

XUTCHELL ASUNCION, COMPUTER OPERATOR: The million dollars! But of course, never got it.

MCDERMOTT: Did you spend money trying to win? ADRIENNE GUSTER, L.A. RESIDENT: Yes, I spent about $200 one summer and I didn't win anything. I played every day. I bought, like, three Big Macs a day. I didn't win anything, so I just gave up on it.

MCDERMOTT: These ninth graders did too, but that's because they figured even if it wasn't rigged, they weren't going to win.

MAGGIE BRIONES, NINTH GRADER: I stopped peeling off the little stamps a long time ago.

MCDERMOTT: And many here said they're going to keep buying Big Macs. Besides, the company's starting a new giveaway, and it'll all be on the up and up.

GUSTER: Mm-hmm.

MCDERMOTT: Now, that's what's known as taking a wait-and-see attitude.

Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: So when faced with such a scandal, how does a company like McDonald's put out the fire? Joining us from New York to help answer that question is Robin Cohn. She's a veteran of corporate public relations and the author of the "PR Crisis Bible."

Good morning, Robin.

ROBIN COHN, AUTHOR, "PR CRISIS BIBLE": Good morning.

LIN: All right, so the battle begins. Very early this morning we were opening up our newspapers, look at this, full page ad in the front section of the "New York Times" from McDonald's addressing their customers, talking about how the consumer's confidence has always been their highest priority. How is it given that McDonald's cooperated in the FBI investigation, I mean you know when do you think they actually started writing this ad? Is this really crisis management? They had a lot of time to plan.

COHN: I think they did have a lot of time to plan. And as far as a response goes, I think they did as well as they could. As soon as the FBI provided the information, they were out with a release.

One of the things about a crisis response is the company has to answer three basic questions. One, what happened? Two, what are you doing about it? And three, how does it affect me? They're answering all these questions with this is what's happened, we are setting up a task force to see that this doesn't happen again and we're initiating a new contest -- $10 million contest.

LIN: So when a major corporation says, hey, we're a victim too in all of this, we're all in this together, is this something that customers should buy? COHN: Well, I think regardless of who made -- who caused the problem, the company -- the buck stops here so that the company has to take responsibility.

LIN: And as they -- as they are taking the responsibility and, as you mentioned, they are having another contest, taking a look at this full page ad, they announce some of the details of the contest at the bottom of the ad. But what they don't say is who is going to be running that contest. Don't you think it's important for a corporation, while acknowledging that they may have hired bad people, really fully announce how they're going to run the next contest and who's going to be running it?

COHN: I think that's a good point. Again, though, that they have established a task force that's being run by an independent council so I think that is addressing part of the problem; but I think you're right, we need to know who is administrating the contest.

LIN: How valuable are these games to companies and their -- and their image?

COHN: I think they're fun, they're another way -- an additional way to promote the company. Actually, I think what's interesting about this is that we are learning that there are indeed prizes. Unfortunately they didn't get to the customers in this case but that the company is awarding prizes.

LIN: All right. So is there anything more that customers should expect from McDonald's other than an apology and another contest and a chance to win?

COHN: I think that about does it. I mean we have to keep this in perspective that nobody got ill, no one was killed. This is a game, it didn't work and the company is trying to make amends.

LIN: Yes, and it is a matter of trust, though, in a relationship with the customer.

Thank you very much.

COHN: Yes, and that's going to take time to build.

LIN: You bet.

Robin Cohn, thanks so much, author of the "PR Bible."

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