- McDonald's announced it will create its own media network, following Amazon and Walmart into retail advertising. The company hopes the business could eventually reach $1 billion.
- 450 company-owned U.S. restaurants began displaying third-party ads on digital drive-thru order boards in August; the program has not yet rolled out to franchisees who operate the rest of its roughly 14,000 U.S. locations.
- Amazon reported $68.6 billion in advertising service sales in 2025, and Walmart's U.S. ad business Connect grew sales 43% in its fiscal Q2, providing benchmarks for McDonald's ambitions.
Quotes
“Commerce media is one of the fastest-growing areas in advertising, and it's expected to reach more than $100 billion in the U.S. alone by 2028”
“We have one of the most valuable brands of any company of our size and scale in any industry”
“We serve about 85% of the U.S. population at least once a year, so we have reach that's quite unique, and we have 14,000 locations across the U.S., which means we're in every community, and we're connecting with every consumer.”