McDonald's: ad spend in the U.S. 2020

McDonald's invested 1.62 billion U.S. dollars in advertising in the United States in 2020. Since 2014, the omni-present fast food restaurant chain has been consistently increasing their promotional spending in the country and steadied the expenses in 2019. In 2017, McDonald’s spent roughly 70 million Canadian dollars on advertising in neighboring Canada. The company's global revenue in 2020 reached roughly 19.2 billion U.S. dollars, a quarter of which was generated in the United States.

McDonald’s on the U.S. ad market

McDonald’s Corporation is the leading advertiser among other popular fast food and quick serve restaurants in the United States. The company’s measured media spend on its chains far surpassed the investments of Taco Bell, Domino’s, Subway and Burger King. In fact, the latter was estimated to have spent a bit more than half of the amount that McDonald’s devoted to advertising. However, the two competitors recently had a stand-off on Twitter, firing jokes at one another in a so-called ‘roast’, which was instigated by Burger King and was hugely popular among social media users. The same could be seen on billboards, posters and in print ads, where McDonald’s was mercilessly trolled by Burger King and vice versa. This rivalry produced high publicity for both brands and managed to shape some lasting impressions about them.

McDonald's Corporation advertising spending in the United States from 2009 to 2020 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Characteristic	Spending in billion U.S. dollars
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Release date

July 2021

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Region

United States

Survey time period

2009 to 2020

Supplementary notes

The figures include measured-media advertising spending and unmeasured spending. Measured media is based on spending in 19 media: consumer magazines, Sunday magazines, local magazines, business-to-business magazines, local newspapers, national newspapers, free-standing inserts, broadcast network TV, broadcast spot TV, national syndicated TV, network cable TV, network radio, national spot radio, local radio, Spanish-language media (magazines, newspapers, TV networks), outdoor and internet (display advertising; excludes paid search, video and other forms of internet advertising). Unmeasured spending figures are estimates including direct marketing, promotion, internet paid search, social media and other forms of spending not included in the 19 measured media.
Figures have been rounded.

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