Product recalls are never good, but McDonald’s has handled its recall of Shrek drinking glasses as well as it possibly could, says Kit R. Roan in Fortune . The paint on the glasses turned out to contain cadmium, a toxic metal. Unlike, say, BP, McDonald ’s (MCD) “has taken pains to accept responsibility,” says Roan, and ” moved at lightning speed to fix it by announcing a voluntary recall on Friday.” You “won’t... 

“Tennessee, you are worthless!” wrote someone on Find the Shake , a real-time, user-generated tracker of McDonald’s (MCD) Shamrock Shakes. This was a response to a fellow Tennessean who had complained: “I LIVE IN A VAST SHAMROCK SHAKE-LESS WASTELAND.” Luckier are the folks in and around remote Greenville, Ill. “Rte 127 right off of I-70,” advised a burping, green-lipped person there. The site …  Read More →

It’s hard to say yet whether Starbucks (SBUX) is losing the coffee war with McDonald ’s (MCD), which now offers higher-end coffee drinks. But it’s clearly a challenge for Starbucks, even though the company is doing much better lately . One way to take on McDonald’s directly without having to sully the Starbucks brand by associating it with fast food is to use another brand owned by the company: Seattle’s Best. Starbucks... 

tbm_logoMcDonalds.jpg Luca Zaia, Italy’s Minister of Agriculture who has unhesitatingly endorsed McDonald’s , says that on Wednesday alone, the chain sold 100,000 McItaly burgers. “In Italy, we consider this a great success,” said the minister who is supposed to be supporting the interests of Italy’s citizens. But that does sound like a pretty good sales figure, and Italian farmers do benefit. The Times of London... 

Burger King (BKC) identifies its targeted demographic as “superfans.” Until now, that has meant young guys who regularly stuff themselves with fast food. But now Burger King is redefining the term: Advertising Age reports that the company has taken to defining a “superfan” as anyone who regularly stuffs himself—or herself—with fast food. After years of creating obnoxious (and occasionally clever) ads aimed at young... 

The hamburger does not sit on the political spectrum, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope argues in the new issue of Sierra magazine. Despite the new administration in Washington, he says, policies that allow the kinds of terrible practices by meat processors that were described by the New York Times in October are still in place, and people are still getting sick from tainted meat. But, he writes, “unlike global warming,” food...