Saturday, June 11, 2022

McDonald's becomes "my burger" in Russia. Logo/name unveiled. (UPDATE)

So here you go: McDonald's no more.

After opening to exceptional fanfare in 1990 in Russia, McDonald's basically scaled back its operations (but could not completely eradicate them as several branches are sublet to other companies). But now that the fast food giant is out of the country what's with the transition time, it has been replaced by "My Burger" - which apparently is a "transitory name" (good luck with that, usually transitory things are here to stay, look at any detour on a Lebanese highway supposed to be "temporary" - it has been so for around 3 decades). In an update to the post, apparently the name is now "Vkusno i Tochka" which means, "tasty and that's it" with a selling line that goes "the name changes, the love stays" in an apparent riff of McDonald's "I'm lovin' it".

So the logo is supposed to symbolize 2 fries and a burger in the shape of the letter "m". Ok reading the letter in question could be stretching it, and of course the logo is an interpretation of other things as well such as a lopsided wifi signal, or the Marriot Hotel logo which also suspended operations in Russia  (see here) or as Botrus Hajj said (whom you met here) "like a footballer kicking a ball". My friend back from university Ossama Dimassi pointed out the analogy with the Adidas logo and he was right as well.

So here we are, the opening of McDonald's on Pushkin square in Moscow was such a seismic event, the opening of My Burger less so.