With some fanfare, on December 23rd McDonald’s launched a new concept store in Japan called Quarter Pounder, a restaurant selling—you guessed it—only Quarter Pounders.
Here’s an amateur video of the opening taken by a customer that was there:
15,000 people attended the store’s record-setting opening, but not all of them were there for the artery-clogging Mickey D’s goodness.
On January 5th, it was revealed that McDonalds paid 1,000 of the ‘customers’ to queue up during the day for their time and for their burgers, 30 of which lined up at midnight the night before.
At a minimum, by seeding the crowd with paid fans, McDonald’s guaranteed the stores would appear to be a success. But the the buzz apparently helped and the results were phenomenal.
In an era where authenticity and transparency are expected, was McDonald’s deception responsible? Did the ends justify the means?
What say you?
