From White House Podium to…McDonald’s?
Hot takes on hot fries!
Somewhere in America, Jon Stewart’s brain is dribbling out of his ears.
Today, fast food chain McDonald’s announced that former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs will be joining the company as its global chief communications officer. He’ll be managing the department that manages government and public affairs.
More from the official press release:
In his new role, Gibbs will lead McDonald’s corporate relations group, which manages internal and external communications and government and public affairs. He will lead McDonald’s in communicating clear, coordinated messages to internal and external constituencies, enhancing the brand and supporting corporate strategies.
Gibbs joins McDonald’s from The Incite Agency, a strategic communications advisory firm he co-founded in 2013. Prior to that he held several senior advisory roles in the White House, serving as President Barack Obama’s press secretary during his first term, then as senior campaign advisor during his re-election campaign. He will replace Bridget Coffing who announced her retirement earlier this year after 30 years with the company.
There’s something delicious about this, no?
When Gibbs left the White House in 2011, the media had a pretty good time highlighting his foibles and failures during his time as Obama’s explainer-in-chief. His departure, while not unusual, gave us an opportunity to highlight just how impossible a job spokesman for the president is—or, just how impossibly terrible Gibbs became at his job, depending on who you ask.
According to MarketWatch, Gibbs isn’t the only new hire McDonald’s is bringing on to combat last year’s substantial reputation hit and subsequent dip in overall sales. In fact, the company has seen nothing but decline for six straight quarters, and this year, is running on a loss of 0.5% on the Dow.
Is Gibbs is the right man to plug holes in a sinking ship? I’d wager that just about any PR job is easier than a PR job in the White House, but it will be interesting to see how his history with the Obamas affects his relationships with the press in his new job. Although he wasn’t directly involved with them, Michelle Obama’s “#GimmeFive” and school lunch overhaul campaigns run at odds with campaigns promoting super-sized orders of french fries; and although McDonald’s has raised wages for employees, their fight to prevent mass unionization and sky-high minimum wage laws is directly at odds with Obama’s populist push.
All this won’t affect his competency, but it could affect his credibility, at least as far as the media and Congress is concerned.
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Comments
“He’ll be managing the department that manages government and public affairs.”
IOW, “lobbyist”.
In a fascist economy, this makes perfect sense. You compete by being the most effective supplicant before BIG GOVERNMENT.
This is Capital City from The Hunger Games in the flesh.
I think the most delicious thing about this is that Gibbs has been hired to be spokesman for McDonalds, who opposes increasing the minimum wage, against unions, the President, the presumptive President, key Democrat leaders, and the official Democrat position, who all support it.
No surprise here… Gibbs has vast experience being the spokesman for a clown.
This comment wins the entire internet. Twice.
Were I a McDonalds shareholder I would start a movement to remove the board of directors. This hire shows that integrity is not an issue for the company. This man has ZERO credibility. He could tell us today is Tuesday and I would not believe it. Total scum of the earth.
If you were a McDonalds shareholder you ought to be scared that this is their big hire, their big move, at a time when profits are heavily eroding over time. Of all their problems, this is the one they address.
“This hire shows that integrity is not an issue for the company. This man has ZERO credibility.”
See, you don’t understand how things work in the Obamic Decline.
You think that credibility is, or should be, valued. Obviously that is not true in the current regime.
CONTACTS and INFLUENCE are what are valued. The artful lie is good. The artless lie that you get away with telling is even better.
Oh just wait till they hire Michelle!
Will they have to promise her multiple 10-gallon cans of gravy every day to lure her?
Snark!
Comment I stole from a PJ Media commenter:
Would he not be a better fit at Burger King? After all, they are the Home of the Whopper.
McDonald’s, nor any other FF restaurants’ problem, is not PR. It’s a stagnant economy devoid of meaningful jobs. Individuals and families must tighten the budget and the expense of prepared food is one of the first to go. Look also for stats on ‘staycations’ this summer – stay-at-home vacations to save money folks just don’t have for travel vacations.
This is absolutely true. Gas prices are the lowest since 2008, which is when the economy tanked. I own a restaurant, and I’ve seen more travelers and tourists this year already than the past seven years. Watching RVs drive past was a rare sight the past several years. They’re everywhere this year. Restaurants aren’t suffering at all from a lack of PR, it’s the price of meat and the price of gas (which affects the meat prices).
You got it Henry!
One person’s lunch ticket at Mickey D’s can easily top out at $10.00. Again that is just for one person’s single meal!!!
Most folks working full time work 5 days per week x 4 weeks = 20 workdays per month. That’s 20 lunches. 20 x $10 = $200 per month going to just lunch. An individual or family struggling to keep the mortgage/rent paid and the lights on is going to stop buying lunch and bag lunch it from home. That’s a big chunk of the FF market affected – the worker’s lunch.
The best way to monitor how well FF restaurants are doing is to count the blue hairs gathered in the back from 6-9 am every morning.
So, he’ll be Marie Harf’s boss?
Great one!
It seems rather appropriate that he should have a job asking; “Would you like fries with that.”
More like he’ll try to get a new regulation passed.
“You WILL have fries with that!”.
Rags jokes here, but he’s right. Gibbs is not there for ‘PR’. He’s there to lobby for regulatory exemptions and other protections.
Perhaps we’ll see the ‘too big to fail’ concept applied to fast food chains.
Yeah, Micky Ds as the biggest fast food name, has been getting hassled by BigGov and sales show it. Big Biz got the message … you have to pay to play, or you get the hose. Happy Meals will now come with gender neutral, commie cool, carbon neutral messaging.
MacDonalds is the biggest, others are doing OK. Economy is a factor, but some folks downgrade TO fast food in harder times, so they have a buffer. And BigMacs are American as apple pie (almost), so the diversity PC crowd might be bent toward Taco Bell, which has been doing well.
I read KFC struggles in China … Obama (allegedly) recommends changing it to KFD, says dog tastes great. 😉
Really too bad it wasn’t Burger King.
He could have gone straight from Telling Whoppers to Selling Whoppers.
And he has worked for a plastic monarch previously. So there’s that…
Bah-dah-BOOM. “But seriously, folks…..”
Try the veal.
Two questions.
Will he be the new ROnald McDonald?
Will he be making minimum wage?
With his experience, he’ll be able to sell a lot of people a lot of bullshit burgers, but this time round he’ll never sell them a second one.
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Gibbs…. was he one of the BeeGees?
This is not a bizarre move. The various cozy relationships between large corporations and government are hardly new; I’d even say they’re routine—can’t blame it all on the current Dems, vile though they are.
And it doesn’t matter that Gibbs is such a twerp; they’re not hiring him to actually handle the food.
More disturbing than hiring Gibbs, to this shareholder, was this quote from President and CEO Steve Easterbrook:
“Robert and Silvia are both highly-respected, talented leaders who will bring a wealth of experience and outside perspective to McDonald’s as we build a more modern, progressive burger company,” said Easterbrook.
Seriously, a “progressive burger company?” I sincerely hope he isn’t referring to political progressivism.