Jollibee and McDonald's

This post was going to be about an article on what McDonald's is doing for kids (see "Back to books, school and fun" by Irene C. Perez, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 20 November 2005). But when I looked at the McDonald's website, I learned that the Philippines is not among the countries listed on the website.

My mind went on overdrive, of course. Could it be that McDonald's is ashamed to list the only country in the world where it's not the market leader? Check out "Jollibee stings McDonald's in Philippines" by Carlos H. Conde (International Herald Tribune, 31 May 2005) and "A busy bee in the hamburger hive" (The Economist, 28 February 2002).

But then I found out that the list "includes only those McDonald's countries/markets that have chosen to submit information about McDonald's in their location." The damage, however, had been done. I remembered a photo that I wanted to share...

Jollibee was not always spelled with two Ls. That's trivia you won't find on Jollibee's trivia site—where, in fact, it says that "Jollibee was founded in 1978." This claim, however, does not tally with the 1977 pocket calendar that I own =)


Category: The Philippines