This article in BusinessWeek highlights that McDonald's is preparing to revamp its packaging to step away from the throwback designs of the 1990's, and to also stay ahead of public obesity concerns. Packaging will include full-color photographs to ensure consumers that burgers like the Quarter Pounder for instance, are made up of real food. To go with this theme, McDonald's classic white, yellow, and red French fry packaging will also display a peeled potato. Mary Dillon, McDonald's global chief marketing officer, mentions that, 'This demonstrates the authenticity of the locally grown ingredients we use.'
More importantly, this will not simply just be different branding for the U.S. markets, McDonald's will slowly implement these changes across 118 countries that it operates in. What's interesting here is that McDonald's consumers and employees worldwide love the current boxes the burgers and fries are placed in, how will customers react to the new packaging? Could we expect the same reaction from consumers as when Coke attempted to change its 'original formula' in the 80's?