McDonald's is changing its US marketing lead. The harder fix is saying fewer things.

On 5 November 2026, Marketing Dive and NRN reported that Alyssa Buetikofer is stepping down as McDonald's US chief marketing and customer experience officer. The reason given in an internal note is family. The more useful story for a founder is the one running behind it: a very big brand saying too many things at once.

¿Qué ha pasado?

Buetikofer is a 15-year company veteran who took the US role in February 2025. She stays until 18 December. The note credits her with the return of Snack Wraps and Monopoly, a new beverage platform and the Grinch Meal. Nothing we read says she was pushed, and I am not suggesting it.

While McDonald's searches for a successor, Charlie Newberger, who led global beverage strategy, becomes interim US chief marketing and commercial officer. Global CMO Morgan Flatley also takes on interim chief creative officer. NRN says it is unclear how long that structure will last.

The news came a day after results. The earnings release shows US comparable sales down 0.2% for the quarter to 30 September, with fewer guests largely offset by higher spending per order. Global comparable sales rose 1.5%. CNBC reports that analysts had expected a 0.5% US fall, that sales grew again in September after falling in July and August, and that two new value menus are being tested for a national launch in early 2027.

¿Qué dice la gente?

NRN frames the change as part of a wider overhaul of US marketing after a weak spring and summer, naming value messaging, a K-Pop Demon Hunters promotion and the World Cup as promotions that fell flat. It also recalls what chief executive Chris Kempczinski said in August, when he listed a K-Pop message, a value message, a beverage message and a FIFA message in turn. His summary: "It's tough to drive awareness when you're sort of jumping around."

The same report says Flatley wants to move away from "borrowed IP", while noting that the Grinch and Minecraft promotions did well. So borrowed IP is not always a mistake. Ad Age also covered the exit, but its page was not open to us, so nothing here comes from it.

My take: the calendar is a brand decision

This is opinion. People will read this as a story about one job. I read it as a story about one calendar.

Every message you run has to travel a long way: noticed, understood, remembered, then recalled at the moment someone is ready to buy. That takes repetition, and repetition takes time. If a message only gets a few weeks before the next one replaces it, you have paid for the noticing and skipped the remembering.

Your customers are not following your marketing calendar. They catch one message at a time, if you are lucky.

In Brand Growth OS™ terms, this is a Clarify problem that looks like a Connect problem. The team is busy and the channels are full, so it feels like activity. But certainty is the brand, and certainty comes from the same signal arriving again and again. It is the same point I made when McDonald's walked away from FIFA: borrowed attention only pays if your own brand can catch it.

McDonald's can recover from a crowded year because it has huge reach and decades of memory to fall back on. A small business has neither. Launch a new offer every fortnight and most of your market will never learn what you sell.

A new name on the door will not fix this on its own. The fix is someone with the authority to say no to good ideas.

¿Qué debería hacer un fundador al respecto?

• What is the one message this quarter? Write it in a sentence. If you need three sentences, you have three messages, and you should pick.
• How many weeks does it get? Look at the last six months. Count how long each message ran before you replaced it, and stop changing it because you are bored of it. Your customers are not.
• Who can say no? Name the person who can refuse a new promotion because it would crowd out the main one. In a small business, that is usually you.

The brand messaging framework helps you write the one message down, and the 95-5 content plan helps you spread it over time. The Brand Growth Audit™ shows which of your signals are getting through. See all brand voices or about Mike Bruce.

Fuentes

Marketing Dive (5 Nov 2026) · NRN (5 Nov 2026) · McDonald's Q3 2026 earnings release (4 Nov 2026) · CNBC (4 Nov 2026). The reports do not link the departure to the sales figures, and neither do I. Opinion is Mike Bruce's; facts are as reported by those sources. See all brand voices.