Greenwashing - the dark side of sustainability? The green marketing strategy of McDonald's - greenwashing for a positive image or a sustainable promise? (PDF)

Pre-University Paper from the year 2020 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 2+, , language: English, abstract: Sustainability. Does that word make you think of McDonald's? Every one of us knows the fast food restaurant and has eaten there once. Why? Fast food is cheap and convenient but at the same time, we all want to live sustainably.

McDonald's has been struggling with a bad sustainability image for many years, and has therefore set major "green" and "ecological" goals for the future with a green campaign. Does the green campaign of McDonald's have a noticeable impact on public articles, customer reviews and revenues? In addition, why is this question so important? More and more companies try to hide their bad activities behind a sustainability image, often it is difficult to decide whether we can trust a company or not. After all, I have chosen this topic because I believe that every consumer should be aware of that because we have the responsibility for the future of our planet, and sustainability plays an important role in this. Furthermore, most of us often go out to eat at McDonald's, but do we know what is happening "behind the scenes"?

To answer the research question, I will proceed as follows: First, I will explain basic information about sustainability in businesses and what "greenwashing" means. The next chapter deals with the green campaign of McDonald's. With the help of the two latest sustainability reports of 2017 and 2018, I will present the promises and goals of the green campaign. Moreover, I will also explain the sustainability concept of the campaign. What visible methods is McDonald's using to implement its goals? In the last chapter, I will analyse the impacts of the green campaign of McDonald's on the press, customers, and revenues. To analyse the impacts on the press, I will examine articles from well-known German newspapers and blog posts from non-governmental organisations. Then I will conduct a survey to analyse how the green campaign affects customers. Furthermore, how does the green campaign affect McDonald's revenues in Germany? Does McDonald's generate more or even fewer revenues through the green campaign? The term paper will end with a conclusion that summarises the collected knowledge and explains a possible outlook for the future.