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The question is doubtless familiar but still it seems to sting. 'Sinister?' echoes Paul Preston in a tone of incomprehension, if not hurt. 'McDonald's, sinister?' The frown passes, his voice rises and the words, in his distinct Ohio twang, suddenly come much faster. 'Listen,' he counters, 'if making money is sinister, then I guess we are. If quality, service, cleanliness and value are sinister, then sure. If anything that we've done demonstrates something sinister, then paint me.'
If Preston sounds overly proprietorial it is perhaps understandable. This, after all, is the company (or 'family', as he sometimes calls it) for which he has worked since the age of 16, whose UK subsidiary -- a L650-million fast-food operation--he helped to establish and now heads. And if he sounds exasperated it is probably because such aspersions on McDonald's virtue seem to be made with increasing regularity. Indeed, a few days later he is to give evidence in a High Court libel action to seek to refute the claims of a six-page leaflet allegedly distributed by two unemployed environmental campaigners. It is entitled 'What's wrong with McDonald's' and promises to reveal 'everything they don't want you to know'. Its headings--'McDollars, McGreedy, McMurder' etc -- give a good idea of its content.
Yet the fact that McDonald's sees fit to take such a litigious course to protect its name is itself instructive. Why, after all, would a vast and highly profitable enterprise seek to pursue two small-fry campaigners through the courts at great cost and with little chance of compensation? Perhaps more pertinently, why should the wider charges -- that Preston's employer is the repository of every conceivable corporate vice -- ever arise in the first place?
The straightforward answer is rather banal. Put aside the defendants' conspiracy theories, militant vegetarianism and accusations of environmental destruction and you're left with the ire routinely directed at any large multinational. Bigness in business is typically synonymous with badness, and McDonald's, with global revenues of $24 billion and the world's second most recognised brand name after Coca-Cola, is a vast and highly visible target.
Yet apart from its size, McDonald's draws attention for its distinctive -- and to outsiders, extremely opaque --culture. Talk to anyone connected with the company, from CEO to...