Gibbs To Run McDonald's Communications; Lagnado Named Global CMO

McDonald’s yesterday named former White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs as its global chief communications officer and appointed Silvia Lagnado, who created the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” while she was at Unilever, as global chief marketing officer.

Both will be executive vice presidents reporting to president and CEO Steve Easterbrook, whose appointment of two outsiders is further evidence of his overhaul of the entrenched culture and practices in Oak Brook.

Gibbs co-founded The Incite Agency, a strategic communications advisory firm, in 2013 after resigning as President Barack Obama’s press secretary during his first term. He replaces Bridget Coffing, who announced her retirement in March after 30 years with the company.

Lagnado is stepping into a position that has been vacant for five years, Jessica Wohl reports for the Chicago Tribune.

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Mary Dillon, the last executive to serve as McDonald's global chief marketing officer, left the company in 2010. Since then, many of the company's global marketing efforts were handled by senior vice president of global marketing Dean Barrett, who retired last week after 41 years with the company. Easterbrook oversaw marketing as global chief brand officer, the post he held before becoming CEO.”

McDonald’s May sales “narrowly topped analysts’ projections after growth in Europe helped make up for a lingering slump in the U.S.,” Bloomberg’s Craig Giammona reported Monday. “Global sales have dropped for the last 12 months, while the declines have stretched over six straight quarters in the U.S. Easterbrook has said a renewed focus on value and convenience will bring customers back to the world’s largest restaurant chain,” Giammona writes in his story about Tuesday’s announcements.

“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,” Easterbrook said in a statement. “Returning excitement to our business proposition and brand is foundational to our turnaround plan, and Robert and Silvia — with their respective teams — will play critical roles in bringing this strategy to life.”

Lagnado was global chief marketing officer of Bacardi when she made Ad Age’s list of the 100 most influential women in advertising is 2012 (along with Dillon who was then President-CEO, U.S. Cellular). She resigned that position later that year and served as non-executive director at Sapient until its sale to Publicis Groupe in February 2015.

“Lagnado, who has a degree in civil engineering, joined Unilever's marketing department in her native Brazil in 1987 and quickly became a star,” reports Maureen Morrison for Ad Age. “Within two years she was a brand development director at Unilever headquarters in London, later working on European regionalization of deodorant brands, including launching Dove deodorant in Europe.”

The appointment of Gibbs had D.C. astir.

“McDonald’s has struggled in recent years to find its place in an evolving culinary marketplace, where consumers still want their food fast, but they increasingly want it healthy, organic and green,” blogs Colby Itkowitz for the Washington Post. “Who better than Gibbs, who ran comms for the candidate who made politics cool again (for a time), to do the same for Mickey D’s? Can he market the change we can believe in?”

TheNew York Times’ Hiroko Tabuchi observes “while McDonald’s has been a favorite target of health advocates for its salty, fatty foods, the company won some praise from Michelle Obama for its decision over the years to add fruit and reduce the portions of the fries in its Happy Meals, which she has called progress in the fight toward reducing childhood obesity.”

Forbes contributor John McQuaid, meanwhile, asks “What is a ‘progressive burger company’?” while pointing out that “McDonald’s is using this term with mantra-like consistency.”

The author of Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat, answers  his own question thusly:  “For McDonald’s, ‘progressive’ is aspirational at this point. It is a catch-all term for a bunch of overlapping trends in the fast-food industry aimed at principally at Millennials, and, increasingly, kids. (My own children, aged 14 and 16, gave up on McDonald’s, Burger King, et al some time ago.)”

There is, of course, yet another strident side to the fast-food political narrative.

“Easterbrook's choice may raise a few eyebrows considering the First Lady Michelle Obama's ‘Let's Move’ healthy eating initiatives which called out fast food companies for marketing to children,” according to a Fox News’ take on an AP file that’s replete with comments supporting the assertion.

“2016. Obama replaces Ronald McDonald,” nb­_dawg writes. “Cool! Now he can lie for Mc Donald's,” says mabolzich. “If he could persuade 51% of the people to vote for Obama, he should have McDonalds up to a three star rating in the Michelin Guide,” observes mlipst7.

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