Watch McDonald's Employees Cheer

McDonald’s expects to serve an Olympic record 1.5 million burgers from its four Olympic-based restaurants it will have open during the Beijing Games, said Debbie Kuiper, McDonald’s general manager of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

“Everything about Beijing is bigger and better,” Kuiper said before a press conference at the world’s largest McDonald’s restaurant — a 35,529-square-foot facility on the Olympic Green.

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The press conference featured McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner, USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth, BOCOG Assistant President Tu Mingde and IOC Managing Director Timo Lumme — all of whom were on hand to honor McDonald’s best restaurant employees, who were recognized as the McDonald’s Olympic Champion Crew. The event was followed by a Big Mac-building competition between members of the Champion Crew.

The event came a day before McDonald’s opens its two retail sites on the Olympic Green.

“Here, at the Games, they’ll give everyone a taste of home,” Skinner said.

The McDonald’s are only one facet of the company’s activation around the 2008 Games. It also flew in 200 children age 6 to 14 from 40 countries to attend the Games; created an alternative reality game called “The Lost Ring” that attracted 2.5 million participants worldwide; and created a series of commercials, including its “The More We Get Together” spot, which features sprinters, wrestlers and boxers competing and then eating in a McDonald’s at the Olympics.

As the official restaurant of the Olympics, McDonald’s is the only Olympic sponsor to have its logo on Olympic signs on the Olympic Green. Its yellow arches jump out from dozens of signs around the Olympic complex.

China Olympic medalists Wang Junxia and Gao Min (in blue shirts) cheer on the McDonald's crew.

Kuiper did not have an estimate for how many people those McDonald’s will serve over the course of the Games, saying it depended on how many people BOCOG admitted to the Olympic Green. She added, “We assume they will be busy all the time.”

The Olympic Village and Main Press Center McDonald’s feature McCafes, offering premium coffee and couch seating. All of the McDonald’s menus include traditional items like Egg McMuffins and Big Macs, as well as a local Chinese favorite, Corn Cups.
The north Olympic Green facility, where the press conference was held, will be renovated after the Games and rented to someone else. McDonald’s will take all of the equipment, tables and chairs and use them in other facilities.

Employees at the McDonald’s occasionally break out into a cheer. They will intermittently clap and cheer, “I’m loving it when China wins.”

It’s all part of the restaurant’s effort to expand its brand in China and make an impression on guests, Kuiper said.