‘The silence is deafening’: Major brands avoid Trump even as he promotes them from the White House
Toluse Olorunnipa
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...m=.c34ec1acfe6c#click=https://t.co/Vxd7MDxqgY
In a scene likely worth millions of dollars in free advertising, President Trump displayed a spread of burgers from some of the country’s biggest fast-food chains inside the State Dining Room of the White House on Monday as hungry football players looked on.
With cameras rolling, he offered a presidential endorsement of “all-American” restaurants including McDonald’s, Chick-fil-a and Wendy’s.
“We like American companies, okay?” Trump said, standing before hundreds of Big Macs and chicken sandwiches alongside the North Dakota State football team. “Go eat up. Enjoy yourselves, everybody.”
But the companies haven’t been quick to return the affection or attempt to cash in on the presidential product placement, with McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Wendy’s all remaining silent about Trump’s endorsements. When Trump held a similar event in January, Burger King was the only company to reference it on social media — by mocking Trump for misspelling the word hamburger in a tweet.
“[D]ue to a large order placed yesterday, we’re all out of hamberders,” Burger King tweeted on Jan. 15, a day after Trump honored the Clemson football team with Whoppers and Big Macs, adding that it was “just serving hamburgers today.”
The corporate reticence underscores the tense relationship between a polarizing president and top U.S. consumer brands. From Sharpies to Big Macs to Diet Cokes, companies behind some of the president’s favorite products have kept him at arm’s length even as he has lavished them with public praise and highlighted their products in the White House.
“It used to be that brands would love to get an endorsement from the president,” said Tim Calkins, who teaches marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Now, if anything, I think these companies probably squirm a bit.”
Trump’s own divisive brand makes him a less-than-ideal endorser for companies seeking to avoid the partisan fray, Calkins said.
Representatives of McDonald’s, Burger King and Chick-fil-a did not respond to multiple requests asking if they welcomed Trump’s endorsement. Newell Brands Inc., which produces the Sharpie pens Trump has praised while signing executive orders, also did not respond to multiple requests. White House officials also did not respond to requests for comment.
In the past, consumer brands have been eager to highlight their proximity to presidents, whose endorsements are especially significant because they are presumed to have access to the best products, said Nick Powills, CEO and chief brand strategist of Chicago-based No Limit Agency.
When then-president Barack Obama visited restaurants in Washington and abroad, the companies regularly highlighted the visits on social media and some still have menu items named after him.
“It was almost like winning a Michelin star,” Powills said of the presidential visits.
During a White House visit by the Boston Red Sox in 2014, slugger David Ortiz took a selfie with Obama on a Samsung smartphone. Samsung, which had an endorsement deal with Ortiz, tweeted out a photo of the “historic” moment, noting that it was “captured with his Galaxy Note 3.”
Presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Carter each invited instructors from Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics to give speed-reading courses to staff in the White House, a marketing coup for the company.
Today, even businesses that once sought out the Trump brand have acted to distance themselves from a president whose divisive and incendiary rhetoric has sparked opposition from more than half the country.
Since the 2016 campaign, six New York residential buildings have moved to strip the “Trump Place” logos from their facades, and several retailers have stopped selling Trump-branded apparel.
Toluse Olorunnipa
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...m=.c34ec1acfe6c#click=https://t.co/Vxd7MDxqgY
In a scene likely worth millions of dollars in free advertising, President Trump displayed a spread of burgers from some of the country’s biggest fast-food chains inside the State Dining Room of the White House on Monday as hungry football players looked on.
With cameras rolling, he offered a presidential endorsement of “all-American” restaurants including McDonald’s, Chick-fil-a and Wendy’s.
“We like American companies, okay?” Trump said, standing before hundreds of Big Macs and chicken sandwiches alongside the North Dakota State football team. “Go eat up. Enjoy yourselves, everybody.”
But the companies haven’t been quick to return the affection or attempt to cash in on the presidential product placement, with McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A and Wendy’s all remaining silent about Trump’s endorsements. When Trump held a similar event in January, Burger King was the only company to reference it on social media — by mocking Trump for misspelling the word hamburger in a tweet.
“[D]ue to a large order placed yesterday, we’re all out of hamberders,” Burger King tweeted on Jan. 15, a day after Trump honored the Clemson football team with Whoppers and Big Macs, adding that it was “just serving hamburgers today.”
The corporate reticence underscores the tense relationship between a polarizing president and top U.S. consumer brands. From Sharpies to Big Macs to Diet Cokes, companies behind some of the president’s favorite products have kept him at arm’s length even as he has lavished them with public praise and highlighted their products in the White House.
“It used to be that brands would love to get an endorsement from the president,” said Tim Calkins, who teaches marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Now, if anything, I think these companies probably squirm a bit.”
Trump’s own divisive brand makes him a less-than-ideal endorser for companies seeking to avoid the partisan fray, Calkins said.
Representatives of McDonald’s, Burger King and Chick-fil-a did not respond to multiple requests asking if they welcomed Trump’s endorsement. Newell Brands Inc., which produces the Sharpie pens Trump has praised while signing executive orders, also did not respond to multiple requests. White House officials also did not respond to requests for comment.
In the past, consumer brands have been eager to highlight their proximity to presidents, whose endorsements are especially significant because they are presumed to have access to the best products, said Nick Powills, CEO and chief brand strategist of Chicago-based No Limit Agency.
When then-president Barack Obama visited restaurants in Washington and abroad, the companies regularly highlighted the visits on social media and some still have menu items named after him.
“It was almost like winning a Michelin star,” Powills said of the presidential visits.
During a White House visit by the Boston Red Sox in 2014, slugger David Ortiz took a selfie with Obama on a Samsung smartphone. Samsung, which had an endorsement deal with Ortiz, tweeted out a photo of the “historic” moment, noting that it was “captured with his Galaxy Note 3.”
Presidents Kennedy, Nixon and Carter each invited instructors from Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics to give speed-reading courses to staff in the White House, a marketing coup for the company.
Today, even businesses that once sought out the Trump brand have acted to distance themselves from a president whose divisive and incendiary rhetoric has sparked opposition from more than half the country.
Since the 2016 campaign, six New York residential buildings have moved to strip the “Trump Place” logos from their facades, and several retailers have stopped selling Trump-branded apparel.
