McDonald’s Corporate Responsibility Blog made lofty promises when it went live to be transparent and engage with customers about things McDonald’s was doing. They seem to be doing a good job with that, if you replace “transparent” with “obtuse” and “engage” with “control.”

Remember McDonald’s promotion to give out Hummers with Happy Meals? Yes, we were all disappointed when we clicked the link and found out the real deal about that one.

Bob Langert, McDonald’s CSR, made a post about the controversy on the Corporate Responsibility Blog. Up until yesterday, there were no comments on the post, despite the fact that a prominent environmental blogger posted one.

He posted his outrage. Other sites picked up the hue and cry. And boy, look: now there are comments, widely criticizing Bob Langert’s perspective on this.

We tend to think this is much ado about nothing; they’re just toys, for god’s sakes. But this is corporate relations as usual: dialogue with your customers only when they get loud.

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