McDonald's Scores PR Week's 'PR Play of the Week'

"McDonald's chairman and CEO Jim Cantalupo sent an open letter to the press last week complaining about the inclusion of the pseudo-word 'McJobs' in the latest edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary," PR Week writes in its PR Play of the Week feature. "Seems flipping burgers for Ronald has become a synonym for 'a low-paying job that requires little skill and provides little opportunity for advancement.' Cantalupo defended McD's workers by declaring that the definition 'is not only an inaccurate description of restaurant employment, it's also a slap in the face to the 12 million men and women who work hard every day in America's 900,000 restaurants.' Since McDonald's has so few chances to tout the wondrous career options available in our fast-food nation, we applaud it for cleverly maximizing even the slimmest opportunity. But those stubborn Merriam-Webster folks, always happy for a little press themselves, weren't buying it. They issued a statement of their own, declaring, '[F]or more than 17 years, 'McJob' has been used as we are defining it in a broad range of publications.'"