I'm Loving It. McDonald's As a Victim of Propaganda

McDonald’s and Burger King are the latest victims of Azerbaijan’s insidious and corrupt efforts to whitewash the Aliyev regime’s extensive human rights abuses and its brutal indiscriminate war against the Armenian people, reports Armenian Assembly.

Recently, Mc’Donald’s franchise in Azerbijan’s posted images related to the recent conflict in the region. Three images supported Azerbaijan’s genocidal aggression against Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

In August 2020, McDonald’s franchisees, suppliers and employees came together for the first global all-System virtual gathering (Full report). Here are the core values that McDonald’s company shares:

“We share the essential work we’re doing to drive societal change in the area of Diversity & Inclusion.“

Going forward, McDonald’s stated to use their influence and scale to accelerate meaningful and overdue societal change for our employees, franchisees, suppliers, customers and communities.

The promotion of military action in Artsakh, which has resulted in a humanitarian crisis that has claimed thousands of lives of civilians, including women and children, certainly goes against the values of integrity and community championed by their organisation.

In 2018 McDonald’s adopted a human rights policy in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Under the UN guideline, companies have a responsibility to ensure they do not contribute to the violation of fundamental human rights. By indicating its support for Azerbaijan’s genocidal campaign against Artsakh, McDonald’s has breached this responsibility. It is a surprise that McDonald’s would choose to associate their brand with such human rights atrocities.

Although McDonald’s has taken down their posts, the Armenian community awaits a public apology.

“We applaud McDonald’s and Burger King for swiftly removing Azerbaijan’s misleading and malevolent propaganda,” stated Armenian Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardony.

In response to these actions, Armenian diaspora is calling to #BoycottHate until action is taken by McDonald’s on this matter.

What happened in Azerbaijan?

Local Azerbaijani authorities and citizens were not happy with the fact that McDonald’s.Az had to take down the posts under the pressure of Armenian Lobby, so they started their own challenge to #BoycottMcDonalds itself.

The slogan for this poster says: “The Armenian Lobby is not stronger than us. Let’s transfer money spent for food to support the army!”