McDonald's Advertisement in Foot Locker Store

While grabbing up some post-Christmas sales in a local mall, a McChronicles reporter walked by a Foot Locker store. Unbeknownst to us, McDonald's had bought ad space on Foot Locker's in-store video network. Imagine our surprise! Not that this is a new development.

This is a good way to reach very specific demographics. A quick Google search gave us the background we craved.

An interesting Business Week article on the general topic (from last year - we're kind of out of it on this one) includes this quote:

"McDonald's now devotes a third of its U.S. marketing budget to television, compared with two-thirds five years ago. Money that used to go for 30-second network spots now pays for closed-circuit sports programming piped into Hispanic bars and for ads in Upscale, a custom-published magazine distributed to black barber shops. To sharpen its appeal to young men, another of its prime target audiences, McDonald's advertises on Foot Locker Inc.'s (FL ) in-store video network. The company zeroes in on mothers through ads in women's magazines such as O: The Oprah Magazine and Marie Claire and on Web sites like Yahoo! (YHOO ) and iVillage Inc. (IVIL ). "We are a big marketer," says M. Lawrence Light, McDonald's chief marketing officer, echoing Stengel's disavowals. "We are not a mass marketer."

We weren't able to grab an image for this posting - we'll try.

The McChronicles: A blog about, not affiliated with, McDonald's.