This week when the execs at McDonald's announced the company was investing $80 million and contracting the services of an international fashion designer to develop its newest line of street-inspired uniforms, burger flippers across the continent flipped out.
McDonald's is hoping that if the uniforms are cool enough, employees will want to wear them, even when not at work...
Paul Vandenburg, a 28-year-old employee at a McDonald's on Yonge St., laughed at the idea of wearing uniforms with labels by Sean John or Tommy Hilfiger. He said no matter what it looks like, he wouldn't wear it outside work. And he doesn't think teenagers would either.
"I don't know why they would want fashion uniforms to stroll outside in," Vandenburg said.
A teenage employee at the McDonald's inside Union Station also balked at the thought of hip and trendy uniforms. "That's ridiculous," the girl said. "Just because I could get away with wearing it outside of work doesn't mean I would."
If anything, I'd suspect that customers would be more interested in the redesigned clothing than employees. As pointed out in the article, an employee working lots of hours for minimum wage in a sweltering kitchen probably isn't going to be eager to do anything to promote the restaurant (particularly if that involves clothing which carries the smell of that kitchen). On the other hand, a truly loyal customer might be a lot more willing to advertise on the restaurant's behalf.
That said, you also have to wonder about the effectiveness of any campaign brought to you by the same minds as this:
(I)n further efforts to reshape the brand as hip and active, even the cheesemeister himself has been given a new look. Ronald has emerged from clown boot camp leaner, energetic and hipper in a fierce red jogging suit.
Nothing like a slightly slimmer clown in a jogging suit to say, "this is a restaurant to take seriously".
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