Byron Allen Companies Sue McDonald's Over Black-Owned Ad Spend
Two divisions of Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group are suing McDonald’s over the restaurant chain’s alleged failure to live up to a 2021 commitment to spend 2% of its billion-dollar ad budget that year with black-owned media companies, increasing to…
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5% by 2024, said a complaint Thursday (docket 23STCV10045) in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County. “The greatest trade deficit in America is the trade deficit between White corporate America and Black America, and we must close this trade deficit immediately," said Allen in a news release Monday. McDonald’s didn’t comment. Under a four-year plan released by McDonald’s, the company should now be spending 4% of its national advertising budget on black-owned media, but McDonald’s “is not coming anywhere close to meeting that commitment,” said the complaint. McDonald’s released the plan in response to allegations from Allen about its ad spending, and Allen’s companies were poised to benefit from the increased spending, the complaint said. “AMG is by far the largest African American-owned media company in the country," and the plaintiffs represent "over 90% of that category," said the filing. "As such, to fulfill its commitment, any allocation would require McDonald’s to spend in excess of $50 million annually to advertise on Plaintiffs’ properties,” the filing said. “McDonald’s rushed out its ‘four-year plan’ in a self-serving ploy to cast itself as racially sensitive and sympathetic.” The lawsuit calls for an injunction against McDonald’s requiring it to spend at least 5% of its ad budget on black-owned media annually, and pay damages in “excess of $100 million.”