Is McDonald’s Playing The Long Game By Rebranding Russian Stores?

Less than a month after announcing they would exit the Russian market, McDonald’s new owner is reopening the locations under a new brand. This new brand is independently owned, and features mostly new and different menu items. Buried in the small print of the arrangement is the provision that McDonald’s will have the right to buy their restaurants back in Russia after 15 years.

Back when I worked in the world of advertising, we routinely had a “conflict agency” that we created in order to do work for a brand that competed with an existing client. Coincidentally, this conflict agency was either called “Chemistry” or “Chemistrii” at two different agencies ... yet the intent was the same. It was a way for us to say yes to working with a client that we would otherwise be barred from taking on. The practice also helped us to play the long game. If we ended up losing that primary client, at least we would have a fallback piece of business. It seems McDonald’s may be doing the same thing with their symbolic departure from Russia.