this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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[โ€“] bvoigtlaender@feddit.org 61 points 3 months ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Coca Cola is also currently airing a really weird โ€œMade in Germanyโ€ ad on YouTube, like theres some serious engineering involved in mixing sugar and water.

[โ€“] Cort@lemmy.world 22 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Seems more like a veiled threat: buy our sugar water or we will have to fire your fellow countrymen

[โ€“] bhamlin@lemmy.world 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If Coke pays there like they pay here, it'd probably be for the best...

[โ€“] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 months ago

Yeah but profits still go back to America

[โ€“] llii@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 3 months ago

They've got plants all over the world because it's cheaper to produce locally than to ship water all over the world. The profits still go to facist USA, so the commercials are bullshit.

[โ€“] geissi@feddit.org 6 points 3 months ago

mix sugar and water

Now that's just unfair, they also have to add the brown. Otherwise you wouldn't know it's Coke.

[โ€“] DrDystopia@lemy.lol 36 points 3 months ago

More than 9 of our 10 ingredients are made in the EU

[โ€“] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 29 points 3 months ago (1 children)

McDonald's is doing the same thing in Canada boasting that it employs canadians and uses some canadian ingredients.

[โ€“] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A&W Canada is actually Canadian owned

Replace your McDonalds with them, the quality is much much better.

[โ€“] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

I've never been a fan of McDonald's food anyway. Harvey's is canadian chain and its parent company is canadian as well.

[โ€“] El_guapazo@lemmy.world 24 points 3 months ago

The fact that McDonald's heavily donates to the right wing politicians should be a clue that it should be avoided everywhere.

[โ€“] Gieselbrecht@feddit.org 21 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Saw something similar, a Coca Cola ad in Germany where they declare themselves "made in Germany". Hey, as weird as these ads are: It shows that they fear losing market shares in Europe due to the image of the US

[โ€“] x00z@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The brand might not be European but they have been producing and bottling in Europe since forever. (Excluding producing some ingredients of course)

[โ€“] viking 11 points 3 months ago

The way those franchises work is that they need to pay a fixed percentage to the US parent company as license fees for the use of the brand. So no matter how much of it is locally produced, bottled, consumed, etc., part of everything goes to fund the US government (through taxes on the profit of the US company). A total boycott of whichever regional outlets you have is the only way to cut the money flow.

[โ€“] Squizzy@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Cokes earnings report showed better than expected performance in Europe. Very strong altogether which is disappointing.

[โ€“] andallthat@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

But it's also actually a good point. There are a lot of namely European brands that have been outsourcing production out of Europe.

Should I boycott McDonald's by not buying hamburgers made with (hopefully) meat that was sourced, prepared and cooked in Europe by local workers and then buy Prada bags manufactured in China?

With modern companies it's so hard!

Right now I prefer to boycott McDonald's more for the political message it sends than careful analysis of where the money flows: if enough people stop going to McDonald's it's easy to draw a line between "US administration starting trade wars" to "iconic US brands sales in Europe drop", but it's not like McDonald's is inherently more evil than some big European brands.

[โ€“] latenightnoir@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 3 months ago (1 children)

They do the same shit in Romania as well, always touting how Localโ„ข they are... Fucking pathetic...

[โ€“] Humanius@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I'm sure they've recently amped up the marketing on that front, but it is not strictly something new.

McDonald's and other fast food chains have always loved advertising that their ingredients are all European in European markets, because apparently people respond well to that.

It makes the food sound more premium than it actually is, I guess.

Oh, they've definitely been doing this for a while now, even have a lot of limited time dishes they advertise as being inspired by the local cuisine (although I'd hardly call sticking two sausages in a slightly longer bun inspired...).

I'm a shitty cook and I still don't get how they manage to ruin beef like that...

[โ€“] Humanius@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

You can substitute your McDonald's purchases with purchases at the Quick. They are a Belgian chain.

I kind of wish they would expand up north into the NL. Instead I've had to learn self control and not go to a fast food restaurant when I get a craving for a mediocre burger.

[โ€“] sniggleboots@europe.pub 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Quick is so goated. I went there as a kid with my parents, but as an adult I just defaulted to the McD that was closer and kinda forgot about it. When the first tariff kerfuffle reared its head I started going back, and it's just better in every way.

[โ€“] Miaou@jlai.lu 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The branches in northern France got bought up by burger king :( they had a food poisoning death 10y ago, that hit them very hard, at least on that market

[โ€“] vorpuni@jlai.lu 1 points 3 months ago

What? Quick (everywhere) and Burger King France are groupe Bertrand assetsโ€ฆ

[โ€“] ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 3 months ago

Theyโ€™ve been on a very aggressive charm campaign all over the Middle East as well. Still undoing the damage from that time their products were prominently photographed with the modern SS.

[โ€“] Mrkawfee@feddit.uk 7 points 3 months ago

Genocide burgers

[โ€“] expatriado@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

mac waffles alright

[โ€“] _cryptagion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago

I don't even need to understand the language to know that claim about "100% green electricity" is bullshit.

[โ€“] Taalnazi@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Fuck McDonald's. It made for Luigi's arrest & is an animal cruelty farm & is American!