Hundreds paid to wait in line at McDonald’s product launch

The quarter pounder went on sale at McDonald’s restaurants in Kansai on the 23rd, and 2,000 people formed a 1-kilometer line outside the Osaka-Minami branch of the store to try it. The CEO of McDonald’s Japan spoke to the press that day, pointing out the large number of people as proof of the popularity and success of the quarter pounder promotion.

The Japanese press has since discovered that about 1,000 of the people were paid to wait in that line. A dispatch company paid each of the individuals to wait in line and buy a quarter pounder, a job which it says was typical product quality “monitor” work. McDonald’s has confirmed that it paid the company to hire product monitors, but denies the claim that the monitors were used to create artificial excitement over their product launch.

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R.

Mcdonald’s restaurants in the US are pretty dirty compared to the ones outside. I’m not sure about other countries but the ones in Brazil are very clean. Going to Mcdonald’s here in the US is like taking chances if you get clean hamburger or not and also you rarely get satisfied.

Philip

Very true. Just like the Uniqlo and Yoshinoyas in the states are pretty expensive in comparison.

Denny’s is absolute shit in the states. Here, it’s totally decent, not to mention clean.

In Thailand, Mcdonalds was a fucking luxury! It’s really expensive compared to everything else — 40 baht for a burger when you can get a full plate lunch for 30.

The Overthinker

You know, the really scary thing about this is that at least a thousand people lined up for a smegging McDonalds 1/4 Pounder who *weren’t* paid for it….
http://yamatologic.com Jeshii

lol! ばれた！

I had never seen サクラ (sakura) used in that context before, meaning people paid to be audience members, or in this case, rabid consumers.

I remember thinking “I can’t believe that many people waited in line for a friggin quarter pounder.” But, if 1000 were paid, that’s still 1500 who were just there cause they are crazy…
John

Even if the company didn’t pay 1000 people to stand in line that still leaves another 1000 people that willingly lined up for a burger. Let me write that again….1000 people lined up to buy a BURGER.
Level3

McD’s Japan has a weekly set of keitai coupons if you join their site. Sometimes there are some deals, maybe 200 yen off some sets.
But, whenever they have some new product, you have to click through the announcement to get the coupons. They were really pushing this Quarter Pounder thing.

Don’t really see the excitement about a slightly larger burger that costs more than double the regular burger and tastes the same. Bleh.

That’s Japan. Advertise something or put something at a mere 10% off, and people go nuts.
jb

the dutiful and obedient way that people will give up hours of their lives in order to pay to kickstart a company’s new product is quite fascinating. i don’t want to believe that they’re fools but the supporting evidence is rather hard to ignore…

Hundreds paid to wait in line at McDonald’s product launch

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