McDonald's

Health improvements

When Steve Easterbrook became CEO of the company in 2015, McDonald's streamlined the menu which in the United States contained nearly 200 items. The company looked to introduce healthier options and removed high-fructose corn syrup from hamburger buns. The company removed artificial preservatives from Chicken McNuggets, replacing chicken skin, safflower oil and citric acid found in Chicken McNuggets with pea starch, rice starch, and powdered lemon juice.

In September 2018, McDonald's USA announced that they no longer use artificial preservatives, flavors and colors in seven classic burgers sold in the U.S., including the hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, McDouble, Quarter Pounder with Cheese, double Quarter Pounder with Cheese and the Big Mac. The pickles will still be made with an artificial preservative, although customers can choose to opt out of getting pickles with their burgers.

McPlant

In November 2020, McDonald's announced McPlant, a plant-based burger, along with plans to develop additional meat alternative menu items that extend to chicken substitutes and breakfast sandwiches. This announcement came after the successful testing of Beyond Meat plant based meat substitutes.

In late 2022, McDonald's announced the addition of the Double McPlant at all restaurants in the United Kingdom and Ireland starting January 4 due to the success of the McPlant. In 2024, select McDonald's in the UK were testing vegan ice cream called Choco Scoop and Strawberry Scoop and receiving positive reviews.

Asia

McDonald's menu is customized to reflect consumer tastes in their respective countries. Restaurants in several countries, particularly in Asia, serve soup. This local deviation from the standard menu is a characteristic for which the chain is particularly known and one which is employed either to abide by regional food taboos (such as the religious prohibition of beef consumption in India) or to make available foods with which the regional market is more familiar (such as the sale of McRice in Indonesia, or Ebi (prawn) Burger in Singapore and Japan). McDonald's restaurants in China include fried buns and soybean milk on their breakfast menus.

In partnership with the Central Food Technological Research Institute in India, McDonald's has introduced millet-based buns on September 4, 2024. Three major (Pearl millet, Sorghum, and Finger millet) and two minor (Proso and Paspalum scrobiculatum) millets are used which makes up 22% of the bun. It provides more calcium, iron, and protein in addition to a small amount of complex carbs to aid in satiety more quickly.

Europe

Throughout Europe, the McDonald's menu may be altered or feature country-exclusive items to suit national tastes. For example, a cheeseburger in Switzerland may include Gruyère cheese, and caldo verde is served in Portugal.In France, McDonald's is colloquially called "McDo". They sell macaroons, Croque McDos, croissants, pain au chocolat, and beer. In Germany and some other Western European countries, McDonald's also sells beer. In Greece, the signature hamburger, Big Mac, is changed by adding Tzatziki sauce and packaging in a pita.

Oceania

In New Zealand, until 2020, McDonald's sold meat pies after local affiliate McDonald's New Zealand (known locally as "Macca's") partially relaunched the Georgie Pie fast food chain it bought out in 1996. In Australia, the "McOz" burger, containing beetroot, is perennially available, as are fries dusted in Vegemite.

North America

After limited regional trials, McDonald's began offering a partial breakfast menu during all hours its restaurants were open in the United States and Canada in 2015 and 2017, respectively. All-day breakfast was phased out from menus in the United States at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The all-day breakfast menu is still available in select locations across Canada.

Meal Deal

The Meal Deal, created in 2024, is one of the restaurant's current McValue Menu offerings. It was created to be a budget friendly meal and offers customers the choice of a McChicken, McDouble, or Daily Double in addition to two sides and a drink. The Meal Deal joins the under $3 selections as McDonald’s sole McValue offerings aside from deals accessible via the McDonald’s app.

Types of McDonald's locations and McDonald's subsidiaries

In the United States, most standalone McDonald's restaurants offer both counter service and drive-through service, with indoor and sometimes outdoor seating.

In 1994, McDonald's attempted Hearth Express, a prototype specializing in homestyle takeout meals. Among the fare offered were meatloaf, fried chicken, and baked ham. This experiment started with a single location in Darien, Illinois but closed after one year.

McDrive

Drive-Thru, Auto-Mac, Pay and Drive, or "McDrive" as it is known in many countries, often has separate stations for placing, paying for, and picking up orders while the customer remains in their vehicle; it was first introduced in Sierra Vista, Arizona in 1975, following the lead of other fast-food chains. The first such restaurant in Britain opened at Fallowfield, Manchester, in 1986. In some countries, McDrive locations near highways offer no counter service or seating. In contrast, locations in high-density city neighborhoods often omit drive-through service. There are also a few locations, mostly in downtown districts, that offer a "Walk-Thru" service in place of Drive-Thru.

McCafé

McCafé is a café-style accompaniment to McDonald's restaurants. The concept was created by McDonald's Australia, starting with Melbourne in 1993. In China, McCafé has expanded through small-format retail concepts such as kiosks, walk-up stands, and mobile coffee trucks. These formats support high-density areas and office districts where full restaurant build-outs are impractical.

McDonald's Next

McDonald's Next uses open-concept design and offers "Create Your Taste" digital ordering. The concept store also offers free mobile device charging and table service after 6:00 pm. The first store opened in Hong Kong in December 2015. The buildings are not colorful, and instead use more natural colors, like from concrete and unpolished oak.

PlayPlaces

McDonald's playgrounds used to be called Playlands and were outside. After concerns were raised that the playgrounds were dangerous, McDonald's moved them inside and began to make them out of softer materials, such as plastic instead of metal. They renamed them PlayPlaces in 1987.

McExpress and McStop

Some locations are connected to gas stations and convenience stores, while others called McExpress have limited seating or menu or may be located in a shopping mall. Other McDonald's are located in Walmart stores. McStop is a location targeted at truckers and travelers who may have services found at truck stops.

CosMc's

In July 2023, the company announced it was working toward a new fast-food brand called CosMc's, which would be tested at 10 sites. The first location was opened in December 2023 in Bolingbrook, Illinois. The outlet had a smaller real-estate footprint than regular McDonald's restaurants and focused on selling coffee and other drinks to afternoon customers.

The name for the new brand came from CosMc, a McDonaldland mascot that appeared in advertisements in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Although four additional locations were eventually opened in Texas, McDonald's announced in May 2025 that all locations would be shuttered and the associated app removed by the end of June of that year. Some CosMc's beverage flavors would be tested in other U.S. McDonald's locations.

Technology uses

Since the late 1990s, McDonald's has attempted to replace employees with electronic kiosks that would perform actions such as taking orders and accepting money. In 1999, McDonald's first tested "E-Clerks" in suburban Chicago, Illinois, and Wyoming, Michigan, with the devices being able to "save money on live staffers" and attracting larger purchase amounts than average employees.

In 2013, the University of Oxford estimated that in the succeeding decades, there was a 92% probability of food preparation and serving becoming automated in fast food establishments. By 2016, McDonald's "Create Your Taste" electronic kiosks were seen in some restaurants internationally where customers could custom order meals.

In 2017, McDonald's launched an app in the United States that allows customers to skip the ordering line inside or drive through and order online. Many McDonald's locations have special parking spaces for such orders.

In September 2019, McDonald's purchased an AI-based start-up, Apprente, to replace human servers with voice-based technology in its US drive-throughs.

In early 2023, McDonald's opened its first largely automated restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas. The restaurant in question would de-emphasize human contact when ordering, with employees available if there were problems but who would otherwise be absent from the ordering process (along with others working in the kitchen or other back-of-the-house roles). There was no seating in this restaurant.

Marketing and advertising

McDonald's has maintained several advertising campaigns for decades. In addition to the usual media (television, radio, and newspaper), the company makes use of billboards and signage. Also, it sponsors sporting events ranging from Little League to the FIFA World Cup and Olympic Games. Television has been central to the company's advertising strategy. To date, McDonald's has used 23 different slogans in United States advertising, as well as a few other slogans for select countries and regions.

In 2026, Wired published a report on data McDonald's collects on customers who are a part of the loyalty program. The data collected includes purchases, loyalty-points history, activity, and any promotional offers associated with an account. According to McDonald's, this data is used with the purpose of helping provide personalized deals and messages. These data is also used to predict McDonald's-related behavior, including predicting what a customer will eat, when a customer will visit, the odds that a customer will visit a restaurant ("Customer Attrition Likelihood"), and how much will be spent on average.

Children's advertising

McDonald's uses playgrounds, games, and toys to make children want to go to McDonald's.

Sports

In 1992, basketball player Michael Jordan became the first celebrity to have a McDonald's value meal named after him. The "McJordan" was available at Chicago franchises. The exclusivity of the meal lead to fans in other regions being envious, more notably leading to a man buying a gallon of the McJordan BBQ sauce for 10,000 dollars.

LeBron James was a spokesman for McDonald's from 2003 to 2017, while co-endorsing Coca-Cola-Sprite since early in his career.

In January 2025, WNBA player Angel Reese became the first woman to partner with McDonald's, creating the Angel Reese Special. Ordering the meal as a double Quarter Pounder was promoted in reference to Reese's consistent double-doubles during games.

Music

In September 2020, McDonald's partnered with rapper Travis Scott to release the "Travis Scott Meal" nationwide. Scott designed new uniforms for McDonald's employees and released Cactus Jack merchandise using vintage visuals from the fast food chain's history. The company followed up with the "J Balvin Meal" in a partnership with reggaeton singer J Balvin.

In 2021, McDonald's partnered with Korean boy group BTS to release the "BTS Meal" in 50 countries around the world, starting on May 26 in select countries.

Space exploration

McDonald's and NASA explored an advertising agreement for a planned mission to the asteroid 449 Hamburga; however, the spacecraft was eventually canceled.

Sponsorship in NASCAR

McDonald's entered the NASCAR Cup Series in 1977, sponsoring Richard Childress for one race. Between 1977 and 1986, McDonald's only sponsored a handful of races in a season. In 1993, McDonald's became the full-time sponsor for the No. 27 Junior Johnson & Associates Ford, driven by Hut Stricklin. In 1994, Stricklin was replaced in the car by Jimmy Spencer, who went on to win twice that season. The following season McDonald's would move over to the No. 94 Bill Elliott Racing Ford, driven by team-owner Bill Elliott. McDonald's stayed with Elliott until the 2001 season when they moved again, this time to the No. 96 PPI Motorsports Ford, driven by rookie Andy Houston. However, when the team failed to field a car for the entire season, McDonald's became absent from NASCAR until 2004, when it joined Evernham Motorsports as a part-time sponsor for drivers Elliott, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, A. J. Allmendinger, and Reed Sorenson until 2010.

During the 2010 season, McDonald's entered its longest partnership with a team at Chip Ganassi Racing, sponsoring the No. 1 Chevrolet driven by Jamie McMurray until his final race in the 2019 Daytona 500. McDonald's moved to CGR's No. 42 of Kyle Larson, whom the company sponsored until his suspension in 2020, and also had a one-race partnership with Richard Petty Motorsports' No. 43 Chevrolet driven by Bubba Wallace in 2019 and 2020. McDonald's continued working with the No. 42 under new driver Ross Chastain in 2021 and also joined Wallace's new team 23XI Racing as a "founding partner".

Since McDonald's purchases over 2 billion eggs per year, which accounts for about 4 percent of eggs produced in the United States, the switch to cage-free eggs is expected to have a major impact on the egg industry. It is part of a general trend toward cage-free eggs driven by consumer concern over the harsh living conditions of hens. In 2014, McDonald's pledged to stop using eggs from battery cage facilities in restaurants in Australia by 2017, which was met in 2018.

McDonald's has been the subject of animal rights activism. In 2021, Animal Rising blockaded four UK distribution centers using bamboo towers, leading to food shortages at restaurants. They cited "suffering of animals" in the McDonald's supply chain as a motivating factor.

European Union

In April 2017, Irish fast-food chain Supermac's submitted a request to the European Union Property Office to cancel McDonald's owned trademarks within the European Union, claiming that McDonald's engaged in "trademark bullying; registering brand names... which are simply stored away in a war chest to use against future competitors", after the trademarks had prevented Supermac's from expanding out of Ireland. The EUIPO ruled in Supermac's favor, finding that McDonald's "has not proven genuine use" of many trademarks, canceling McDonald's owned trademarks such as "Big Mac" and specific "Mc"-related trademarks within the European Union.

Burger King responded by "trolling" McDonald's by giving their burgers names that included the words "Big Mac" that also mocked the original burger, which included "Like a Big Mac But Juicier", "Like a Big Mac, But Actually Big" and "Big Mac-ish But Flame-Grilled of Course."

In 2023, the EUIPO Board of Appeal partially annulled their decision after McDonald's filed 700 pages of additional evidence despite objections. However, on further appeal to the European Court of Justice, the court ruled in 2024 that McDonald's had failed to prove the use of the Big Mac trademark in relation to chicken products or services associated with operating restaurants, meaning Supermac's and other businesses are now free to use the "Mac" in their business names and in names for poultry products in Europe. McDonald's retains the Big Mac trademark solely for its beef burgers.

The McDonald's group has had proceedings taken against it by the French Tax Authorities, with possible charges of criminal tax fraud. In July 2022, the group reached an agreement with the French judicial authorities to end criminal proceedings for tax fraud.

Malaysia

On September 8, 2009, McDonald's Malaysian operations lost a lawsuit to prevent another restaurant from calling itself McCurry. McDonald's lost in an appeal to Malaysia's highest court, the Federal Court.

On December 29, 2016, McDonald's Malaysian issued a statement that said only certified halal cakes are allowed inside its restaurants nationwide.

United Kingdom

The longest-running legal action of all time in the UK was the McLibel case against two defendants who criticized several aspects of the company. The trial lasted ten years and called 130 witnesses. The European Court of Human Rights deemed that the unequal resources of the litigants breached the defendants' rights to freedom of speech and biased the trial. The result was widely seen as a "PR disaster" for McDonald's.

In 2021, it emerged that at least 50 employees had filed charges against the chains regarding harassment in the workplace in five years, leading to the company instituting anti-harassment training. Some of the complainants also stated that they were verbally and physically harassed in retaliation for their complaints. In 2023, the BBC conducted an investigation, and reported that more than 100 current and recent UK workers at outlets of the fast-food chain allege there is a continuing toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying.

In January 2025, it was reported that over 700 young workers had filed lawsuits against McDonald's UK, alleging widespread harassment and discrimination. The claims, handled by the law firm Leigh Day, involved current and former employees under the age of 20 and spanned more than 450 restaurants. Following a BBC investigation in July 2023, testimonies highlighted issues such as racism, homophobia, ableism, and harassment. McDonald's UK, dismissed 29 workers for sexual harassment in 2023 and established a specialist unit to investigate such allegations. However, unions argued that these measures did not resolve the issues. Employees shared accounts of inappropriate behavior, including homophobic remarks, sexual advances, and unwanted physical contact from managers. Similar allegations had been raised in 2019, with the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union reporting over 1,000 cases of harassment involving female employees. In March 2025, the Equality and Human Rights Commission wrote to all 1,400 McDonald's branches telling them they must comply with their legal duties, or risk enforcement action.

In June 2025, it was reported that McDonald's was attempting to block the expansion of the Irish chain Supermac's into the UK market and intended to proceed with IPO trademark court proceedings in the UK, despite having been unsuccessful in similar proceedings against Supermac's in the EU in 2024.

United States

The 1994 court case Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants examined a McDonald's practice of serving coffee so hot that when spilled, it caused third degree burns requiring weeks of hospitalization and skin grafting surgery. The trial outcome was an award of $2.86 million (equivalent to $5.47 million in 2024) for the plaintiff, 81-year old Stella Liebeck. The amount was later reduced to $640,000 (equivalent to $1.2 million in 2024).

In 2019, a McDonald's employee, Jenna Ries, sued the restaurant chain over allowing sexual harassment in the workplace and described the working environment as "toxic".

In 2023, an investigation by the United States Department of Labor found child labor violations at McDonald's franchises in the state of Kentucky, which involved over 300 children, two of them 10-year-olds. A total of $212,000 was levied against three franchises for the violations. Further investigations uncovered child labor violations involving 83 minors at 16 different locations in Louisiana and Texas, with imposed fines amounting to $77,572.

Commercial surveillance

McDonald's has become a significant actor in the landscape of commercial surveillance, leveraging extensive data collection to drive customer retention and revenue. Through its loyalty program, the company aggregates granular behavioral data — including purchase history, promotional interactions, location data and "online activity on other websites, applications or social media" — to feed predictive algorithms that estimate the customer lifetime value and probability of future visits. The scale of this monitoring was highlighted in 2024 when a reporter obtained a 515-page dossier on his own profile, through California’s Consumer Privacy Act, revealing a depth of personal tracking that was associated with intelligence agencies rather than private enterprises. This practice exemplifies how non-tech companies have incentives to collect, process and aggregate as much data as possible to increase their profits. Critics from CyLab Security and Privacy Institute and the Center for Digital Democracy argue that such corporate profiling, normalizes massive data collection and undermines consumers privacy.