________________________________________________________________________________ The Wall Street Journal September 3, 1999 How Big Mac Was Able to Refrain From Becoming a Serb Archenemy By ROBERT BLOCK, Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- During most of the 78-day air war against Yugoslavia, while NATO kept the bombs dropping, McDonald's kept the burgers flipping. Vandalized at the outset by angry mobs, McDonald's Corp. was forced to temporarily close its 15 restaurants in Yugoslavia. But when local managers flung the doors open again, they accomplished an extraordinary comeback using an unusual marketing strategy: They put McDonald's U.S. citizenship on the back burner. To help overcome animosity toward a quintessential American trademark, the local restaurants promoted the McCountry, a domestic pork burger with paprika garnish. As a national flourish to evoke Serbian identity and pride, they produced posters and lapel buttons showing the golden arches topped with a traditional Serbian cap called the sajkaca (pronounced shy-KACH-a). They also handed out free cheeseburgers at anti-NATO rallies. The basement of one restaurant in the Serbian capital even served as a bomb shelter. Now that the war is over, the company is basking in its success. Cash registers are ringing at prewar levels. In spite of falling wages, rising prices and lingering anger at the U.S., McDonald's restaurants around the country are thronged with Serbs hungry for Big Macs and fries. And why not, asks 16-year-old Jovan Stojanovic, munching on a burger. "I don't associate McDonald's with America," he says. "Mac is ours." This is music to Dragoljub Jakic's ears. The 47-year-old managing director of McDonald's in Yugoslavia was the mastermind behind the campaign to "Serbify," at least during the war, an American icon. "We managed to save our brand," the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Mr. Jakic says with a grin. That was no easy task. As the fast-food industry's superpower, McDonald's is a global symbol of Western pop culture, Yankee know-how and American corporate cunning. But prominence on the world stage can be a lightning rod for trouble, and the company is often exposed to outbursts of anti-American sentiment and a myriad of political grievances. Last month, a McDonald's restaurant in Belgium was burned down, and animal-rights activists are the suspected arsonists. Youth Mobs The sacking of McDonald's in Yugoslavia came after only one night of air strikes. Whipped to patriotic fervor by the state-controlled media attacks on the "NATO criminals and aggressors," mobs of youths -- many wearing Nike shoes and Levi's jeans -- targeted three McDonald's branches in Belgrade and restaurants in the cities of Jagodina, Cacak and Zrenjanin, smashing windows and scribbling insults on doors and walls. The incidents shocked Mr. Jakic, who was more worried at the time about stray NATO bombs than the rage of his fellow citizens. "We have been in Yugoslavia for years, during which time we sponsored schools, sports clubs and children's hospitals," he says. "We're part of the community. We never thought anyone would do something bad to us." McDonald's, in fact, was once the pride of Belgrade, opening in the capital on March 24, 1988 -- exactly 11 years to the day before the North Atlantic Treaty Organization began bombing. It was the first branch in Central Europe and quickly became a source of local pride. At soccer matches in the old Yugoslavia, when teams from Belgrade met opponents from Zagreb, the Croatian capital, Belgrade fans would taunt their rivals with chants of "We have McDonald's and you don't!" In 1996, the company began expanding, opening restaurants in seven other Serbian cities. But on March 26, the day after the mob attacks, Mr. Jakic closed all his restaurants. He then called his top managers to Belgrade for brainstorming sessions to devise a survival strategy. 'Restaurant Is a Target' Within a week, they had launched a campaign to identify the plight of ordinary Serbs with the big burger joint. "McDonald's is sharing the destiny of all people here," read a sign at one branch. "This restaurant is a target, as we all are. If it has to be destroyed, let it be done by NATO." A key aspect of the campaign was to present McDonald's as a Yugoslav company. Though they are registered as local businesses, every restaurant in Yugoslavia in fact is 100% owned and operated by McDonald's. Mr. Jakic says McDonald's needed to get Serbs to view the company as their own. It was in this vein that he and his team decided to redesign the logo with the Serbian cap, cocked at a haughty angle over one arch. Traditional national emblems, like the sajkaca, have undergone a revival in recent years with the rise of Serbian nationalism. Mr. Jakic says the choice of the cap had nothing to do with politics. "The sajkaca is a strong, unique Serbian symbol. By adding this symbol of our cultural heritage, we hoped to denote our pride in being a local company," he says. The company also brought back the McCountry pork burger, first released throughout Central Europe in early March, and lowered its price. The economy of preindustrial Yugoslavia was based on the pig trade, and pork is considered the most Serbian of meats. Mr. Jakic says his relaunch wasn't an attempt to pander to local sentiments, but to give people a break during hard times. There was no time for premarket trials of his plans. "We just jumped in," Mr. Jakic says. In less than a week, McDonald's had printed new banners, tray liners, lapel buttons and posters of the redesigned arches set against the blue, white and red colors of the Serbian flag. On April 17, Belgrade restaurants were reopened and more than 3,000 free burgers were delivered to the participants of the Belgrade marathon, which was dominated by an anti-NATO theme. At the same time, the company announced that for every burger sold it would donate one dinar (about a nickel) to the Yugoslav Red Cross to help victims of NATO's airstrikes. 'A Hamburger Guy' At McDonald's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., spokesman Chuck Ebeling says the Yugoslav campaign was a product of local management and was in no way directed or encouraged by the head office. Mr. Jakic "was functioning as a hamburger guy and not as a politician," Mr. Ebeling says "He was doing what he felt he should do, and needed to do, to be locally accepted and to maintain the support of local government and of his employees. He demonstrated how adaptive he could be under the circumstances." Mr. Jakic says he was praised by his superiors at a meeting at McDonald's regional headquarters in Vienna. And while he says he is happy his campaign helped McDonald's to prosper during exceptional circumstances, he was also quick to return to business as usual. As soon as the war ended, on June 10, the arches reappeared, without the green cap. "We simply believed that our message was received and there was no reason to continue," Mr. Jakic says. Asked if the cocky sajkaca had been ditched forever, Mr. Jakic smiles. "We will make an investigation to see how it worked, and then maybe we'll fine-tune it," he says. "We've not abandoned it completely." The campaign certainly made an impression here. At one McDonald's, a green book for customer comments records the delight of Belgraders when the restaurant reopened and unveiled its new approach. "We are so happy to see the campaign to help people hurt by the war. It's very humane and the only way to justify the business of an American restaurant in Yugoslavia," wrote Andjela, Aleksandra and Dragan, on April 18. The same day, Isidora wrote: "McDonald's is the only American who wished to become a Serb." # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org