Enterprise Dec 95

Why this ad was out of date just 7 hours after it was written.

It's hard to keep up. This morning, somewhere in the world, a McDonald's opened. Another this afternoon. Again this evening. One every seven hours...just one fascinating McFact about the world's favourite family restaurant.

McDonald's serves 29 million people every day in 86 countries. So in the time it's taken you to read this line, we've fed around 2 thousand people.

The world's busiest McDonald's is on Pushkin Square in Moscow. The Russians queued for 2 nights before the opening in 1990, when tens of thousands of customers came through the doors. Since then, the 3 Moscow McDonald's have served 73 million meals - a average of 40 thousand every day.

Quality? It's law at McDonald'. A cold drink is served no colder or warmer than 4 degrees centigrade. Burger buns are toasted at 216 degrees centigrade for 35 seconds; the patties grilled for 42 seconds; and McFries go into the 168 degrees centigrade ol for exactly 2.55 minutes (if they're not sold within the specified time of 7 minutes, well, they won't be sold).

Over a million people come to work at McDonald's every day - in fact, in the United States, 1 in every 15 people has worked at McDonald's at some time. We also train more people than the U.S. Army. (in just the first month, everyone gets at least 32 hors' instruction.)

McDonald's is the second most recognised brand in the world. Of course, we sell the best known one: Coca-Cola.

When it opened, the world's largest McDonald's, in Beijing, had a thousand employees and seated over 8 hundred. (You'd still be served within 60 seconds of ordering!)

Ronald McDonald's Children's Charities has given the equivalent of R360 million to needy children since the charity was created in 1984.

Waste not, want not. McDonald's is the world's largest user of recycled paper in the food service industry. And whatever we do use, we make sure goes back into the system.

If you'd invested US$100 in McDonald's stock in 1960, you'd have well over US$400,000 today. In fact, it's one of the 30 shares that comprise Wall Street's Industrials Average.

How long does it take to prepare a chicken? If it's a McChicken burger...well, we got it just right after 10 years of testing. The same research most McDonald's food goes through: our Filet-O-Fish, McFries, Apple pie, milkshakes...

The Economist magazine uses "The Big Mac Index" - based on the price of our famous burger - to measure the purchasing power of foreign currencies.