McDonalds

“Mercadona no longer competes only with Carrefour, it does so with the restaurant on the corner and McDonald’s”

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If you go to the RAE website and look for the definition of “supermarket” You will see that its academics describe it basically as a store where one goes to fill their basket with food, drinks, cleaning products and other belongings. Then he goes to the checkout, pays what is due and goes home. The same thing that the experience accumulated after years and years of making the purchase tells us. The problem is that both the RAE and our experience are beginning to stay out of date. The supers they are no longer happy with being our food providers. Now they want to be something more: our main reference in food. And that means stopping competing only with each other to do so with hoteliers and even multinational restaurant chains. like McDonald’s or Burger King. Express it clearly Bernardo RodillaRetail Business Director at Wordlpanel by Numerator: “Mercadona no longer competes only with Carrefour, it is also competing with the restaurant on the corner and McDonald’s. In the end everyone fights for the same need and it’s getting closer.” A share of almost 20% Rodilla’s reflection is interesting for several reasons. First, for his knowledge of the sector. Second, because Worldpanel is one of the firms that produces the most statistics on food and retail market shares. Not long ago, in fact, he published a report that slipped a key idea: Mercadona is no longer just the chain with higher market share in its sector, far surpassing rivals such as Carrefour or Lidl, it has also become a heavyweight in global food. Translated into figures, this means hoarding a share of the value of almost 20% in food and beverage consumption. What does that mean? That Mercadona sells as much (or more) food as traditional hospitalityat least in terms of value. According to the Worldpanel reportbars, cafes and terraces accounted for around 11.2% share and independent restaurants 8.6%. However, Mercadona takes 19.7%, quite a distance from others retailssuch as Carrefour (6%) and Lidl (5.1%). The change in the sector ‘photo’ is so clear that Rodilla recognizes that it is forcing analysts to rethink their way of studying the sector. “We propose that we increasingly have to look at market shares in a global total of food. We can no longer differentiate if it is food for eat at home or eat out or for restaurants,” he points out. Everything also indicates that the panorama will continue to change over time, as the prepared food sections of supermarkets continue to expand. Probably the clearest example is left ‘Ready to eat’the cooked food service launched in 2018 by the Juan Roig chain and which basically (as its name indicates) allows the customer to buy already prepared dishes at the supermarket that, in many cases, they can devour right there, without having to leave the store. Although it is less than a decade old, this line of business already has hundreds of millions and look from you to you to chains of fast food. “Everything that is ‘Ready to eat’ is a trend that, not only in Spainbut in many countries, it is having a journey. It gains weight and it makes sense because in the end we want to spend as little time as possible cooking,” reasons Rodilla. As for the future, and despite the fact that, as the Worldpanel expert recalls, when a trend takes hold it is common for others to emerge in the opposite direction, it is expected that services such as Mercadona’s will continue to expand. The phenomenon is not limited to the Valencian chain. There are many other companies, such as Carrefour, Alcampo or Masymaswho are exploring the business niche of prepared meals. In fact, they are beginning to be so popular that a new term has even been coined to designate those supermarkets with food counters and rooms where you can taste them: the ‘merchants’. In Barcelona the ‘traditional’ hoteliers have already started to denounce them so they consider a unfair competition that affects them directly. Its strategy is to offer cheap, appetizing, flexible and fast-consuming menus. They sell food, yes; but above all they sell time savings. The bet is working so well that there are those who believe, including Roig himselfthat supermarkets will end up making kitchens outdated spaces in the home. Why have a vitro if Mercadona or Carrefour already cooks for us? Rodilla has another question: if that happens… Exactly, what role will the supers come to play? He does not believe that we are heading towards the culinary dystopia predicted by Juan Roig, although he does not see it as unreasonable that in the future our way of relating to cooking at home will change. Instead of being just another household chore, cooking would become an activity “playful”. From Mercadona and super regional In any case, precooked foods and the success of ‘Ready to Eat’ are not the only trends that mark the food distribution sector. Internally, there are three other equally clear phenomena: Mercadona’s expansionwhich already has between 25 and 30% market value share, white label success and the endurance of the super regionals. For Rodilla it is a reflection of how our own way of buying and filling the refrigerator has changed. “Not only has Mercadona grown, but all organized distribution has grown in recent years. You see how we bought in 2000 and how we buy now and you see how the supermarket in general or the large supermarkets has grown. Between Mercadona and Lidl in the last 25 years, practically 25 share points have grown,” he points out. At the opposite pole is the branch of the sector that has lost ground: the “lifelong specialists”as fishmongersbutchers or fruit shops. “The Spanish market was very particular and there were many specialists. In recent years we have seen that it has been disappearing and that purchase has been transferred to organized distribution,” Rodilla explains. In the specific case of Mercadona, its ability to move from an autonomous model, … Read more

Prepared food already represents a business of 3,000 million for Mercadona. And that is a problem for McDonald’s and Burger King

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The proverb says that a picture is worth a thousand words. The success of the so-called ‘merchants’ Supermarkets that are hybridizing to become places where you can buy and consume already cooked dishes are not only measured in images and words. It can also be followed with something much more forceful: figures. One of the most resounding he just left her Mercadona. Throughout 2025, the Valencian chain had a turnover of around 700 million euros in Spain through its section ‘Ready to eat’. If we expand the focus to include its pre-cooked offering (refrigerated, trays…) the joint business volume in Spain and Portugal amounts to 3,000 million euros. What has happened? We have just obtained data that helps us better understand how the ‘Ready to Eat’ section is working for Mercadona. According to the information advanced by Food RetailIn 2025, the Valencian chain invoiced 700 million euros in Spain through this channel. Perhaps it seems like a discreet figure when compared to its global sales, which were close to 39.8 billion in Spain, but it is interesting for two big reasons. First, because the ‘Ready to Eat’ section is young. It was not launched until 2018. Since then Mercadona has been expanding it throughout its network (in 2025 it reached 210 new supermarkets) until it was present, at the end of last year, in 1,469 points of sale from Spain and Portugal. The second reason is that in reality ‘Ready to eat’ is only one of the multiple channels that allow Mercadona to capitalize on the growing demand for already cooked food. If the entire business and its turnover in Spain and Portugal are taken into account, the level of income is much higher. How much do you earn then? In total, if we count both the business generated by the ‘Ready to eat’ section and the sale of pre-cooked food (creams, packaged chicken or refrigerated pizza, for example), Mercadona entered around 3 billion of euros in Spain and Portugal. Not only does it represent just over 7% of the company’s global turnover, it also shows a growth of 20%, which confirms the potential of that line of business. The figure helps to understand Mercadona’s commercial strategy, which has been betting on the ‘Ready to eat’ section for years (in 2025 it implemented it in 250 new super) and in recent months it has redoubled its bet, adding to its offer of dishes and desserts a new service of freshly ground coffee. The cooked food sections also play a decisive role in the so-called ‘Store 9’the new establishment format that the company wants to implement in its network. Does the data matter that much? It is certainly striking. FRS contributes another brushstroke which helps to understand to what extent the sale of pre-cooked or ready-to-eat food has grown in Mercadona. The 3,000 million euros registered in Spain and Portugal in 2025 far exceed McDonald’s annual sales in Spain (around 2 billion euros) or Burger King (others 1.5 billion). In fact, it almost equals the sum of both subsidiaries. It’s not surprising at all. Mercadona has conquered 20% of the entire food and beverage business (in value share) and ships a large part of the hamburgers with buns sold in Spain. According to the Numerator signatureis behind approximately 10.2% of consumption occasions. They are just nine points lower than the national market leader McDonald’s (19.5%). Does it only happen with Mercadona? At all. The chain stands out for its considerable market share, but it is not the only one seeking to benefit from the growing demand for already cooked food. In February, the consulting firm NielsenIQ estimated that “prepared and ready-to-eat food solutions” are growing at a rate of more than 10% in supermarkets and hypermarkets, which is in turn shaping a billion-dollar business. “Right now this segment represents a total of about 3.7 billion,” explains Nacho Biedmatechnician of the consulting firm, in an interview with elDiario. There are analysts who calculate that the distribution sector (which includes supermarkets) already monopolizes 23% of what we spend on food outside the home. Why this change? Because consumer habits are not immutable. We do not eat the same, nor in the same way nor in the same places as our grandparents. And our grandchildren probably have different habits too. I predicted it last year Juan Roig, predicting that in the middle of this century Spanish homes will no longer have kitchens, so supermarkets will become more than just the place where we buy food to fill our refrigerators: they will be our great reference in food. Beyond these changes at the domestic level, sections like ‘Ready to Eat’ play a great role. They offer customers variety, agility and, above all, rates that traditional bars can hardly match. Prepared meals from supermarkets are in a way the successors of a ‘menu of the day’ that has been in crisis for yearssuffocated by rising prices. More and more people stop going to the corner restaurant to spend 14 euros in a menu of first, second and dessert that will take you 45 minutes to consume. He goes to an Alcampo, Carrefour or Mercadona, buys a couple of dishes for 10 euros and devours them in less than half an hour in the dining room located in the supermarket itself. Many people even take cooked food to devour at home. Images | Mercadona Via | FRS In Xataka | Very few national supermarkets are resisting Mercadona: regional chains like Froiz are

McDonald’s Happy Meals

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At the end of the eighties, batman It was not that perfectly oiled machine of franchises, shared universes and meticulous marketing, but rather a risky bet. Warner Bros decided to blow up the image camp inherited by Adam West and entrust the character to a guy like Tim Burtona director with a dark, gothic and deeply authorial imagery. The result was a success almost as famous as his fall into hell. When Batman stopped being sellable. As we said, the result of Burton’s hiring It was Batman (1989), a huge success that not only devastated the box office, but also legitimized superhero movies as more than just children’s entertainment. Burton not only redefined the character, he also laid the aesthetic and emotional foundations for everything. what would come next. Gotham became an architectural nightmare, Bruce Wayne a lonely and disturbed millionaire, and the genre took an irreversible leap toward maturity. Creative freedom and unbridled sequel. That success placed Burton in a unique position: almost total creative control for Batman Returns (1992). The director took advantage of the margin to go even further, delivering a film less interested in the hero than in his villains, more sexual if you will, but also more grotesque and uncomfortable. Danny DeVito’s Penguin was not a stylish eccentric, but an abandoned monster at birth, violent, repulsive and tragic. Catwoman, a broken and vengeful figure, and Gotham City a warped reflection of corruption, power and alienation. Batman Returns it wasn’t a children’s movie, and possibly I didn’t mean to be. Burton never conceived it as such, and in fact fought with censors and studios to avoid an even more restrictive rating. The clash with merchandising. The problem was not the movie itself, but everything that was built around. Warner Bros. activated a massive marketing campaign, supported by sponsors who had not seen either the script or the final cut. McDonald’s was the star partner. Gotham-themed restaurants, collectible glasses, toys and, above all, Happy Meals aimed at children between five and ten years old. The contradiction was total: a dark, disturbing film not recommended for children under 13 years of age sold as a familiar, colorful and sweetened product. The Penguin case was the breaking point. While Burton showed a villain on screen who bit noses and spit black bile, McDonald’s distributed a watered down version and almost endearing character in their children’s menus. The perfect storm: parents. The reaction it didn’t take long to arrive. Outraged parents, letters to newspapers like Los Angeles Timesreligious organizations and civic groups accusing McDonald’s and Warner of irresponsibility and deception. The question was always the same: how on earth was it possible for a movie full of nightmares to be actively marketed to young children? McDonald’s tried to defend himself claiming that the toys did not promote movie attendance, and Warner claimed that it had avoided using real elements from the film, something that was not entirely true. The damage, after all, had already been done. Batman Returns became a public relations problemnot because it failed at the box office, but because it didn’t fit the mold that marketing needed. Find a culprit. Fearing that the franchise would burn out in the long term, Warner Bros. opted to a radical turn. The solution was not to change the relationship between cinema and merchandising, but to change the tone and sacrifice the director. Tim Burton was removed from the saga on the grounds that his vision was “too strange” and unfamiliar. Michael Keaton, who did not want to continue without Burton, he also left. The message was clear: Batman had to be bright, accessible and, above all, sellable again. Joel Schumacher took over and the result was Batman Forevera film designed for please sponsors and fast food chains (and that today would embrace the algorithm), with bright colors, exaggerated humor and a tone that made any trace of Burton’s introspective and gothic Batman impossible. The Happy Meal as a symptom. Years later, Burton I would sum it up with irony and bitterness: he had upset McDonald’s. The famous phrase about “that black thing that comes out of the Penguin’s mouth” condensed the real problem. It was not just a fast food chain behind it, but the definitive clash between an artistic vision and an industry that was beginning to understand franchising. as merchandising platforms rather than as cinematographic works. In that sense, Batman Returns didn’t fail creatively, it failed as a children’s product, and that was inexcusable. The legacy. Burton’s departure marked a before and after. The saga entered into a drift that would culminate with the infamous Batman & Robin and their outfits with nipplesa cartoon that buried the character for years. Paradoxically, time has been generous with Batman Returns, today considered one of the films more personal and brave of the genre, and possibly one of Burton’s best works. Its “failure” was, in reality, the early demonstration of a conflict that would define Hollywood for decades: when superhero cinema stopped belonging to directors and began to respond, above all, to toys that had to fit in a Happy Meal box. Image | Warner In Xataka | In 1975 a party ended on the beach. What happened next was so chilling that people were afraid to swim in the sea In Xataka | The best advertisement within a movie is this science fiction classic: it was so good that it made us doubt the Nazis

30 years ago a young Chinese man set up an ice cream stand. Now he leads an emporium with more stores than McDonald’s

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It’s hard to believe in a world dominated by big brands and multinationals, but there is a hospitality chain with more stores than McDonald’s and Starbucks that you’ve probably never heard of. His name is Mixue (Mìxuě Bīngchéng) was founded in the late 90s by a university student from Zhenghou, China, and today it is considered the largest food and beverage chain in the world. This is how it is recognized, for example, by the magazine TIMEwhich has included it in your listing of the 100 most influential companies of 2025. It is estimated that it has more than 46,000 stores spread throughout Asia, Australia, the Middle East and South America, a vast network of stores offering a menu based on ice creams, smoothies, coffees, traditional teas and bubble teas. Bigger than McDonald’s? Yes, if we talk about the number of establishments. The benefits already they are something else. While McDonald’s boasts of having more than 43,000 restaurants spread across more than a hundred countries and Starbucks managed 40,576 stores At the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, Mixue surpasses (and quite comfortably) both figures. A few months ago the magazine TIME assured that the chain has more than 45,000 spread mainly throughout mainland China, although it also operates in other regions. Do you have so many stores? Yeah. Fortune calculate which exceeds 46,000 points of sale throughout Asia, Austria, the Middle East and South America. Other sources speak of more storesraising the total network to 53,000 points selling. Beyond these dancing numbers, one thing is clear: Mixue is normally considered the food and beverage chain with a greater deployment of establishments in the world. In addition, its branch network continues to expand to good If in the West its brand is less known to us than McDonald’s or Starbucks, it is because (despite the international jump that has given in recent years) most of the Mixue stores they remain focused in China. The firm also has another handicap that helps understand its global expansion: while in the case of Starbucks more than 50% of the stores are in the hands of the company itself, in Mixue practically all They operate through franchises. What is your story? Mixue’s is the typical story of improvement and accelerated growth that gives shine to the classes of coaching business. The father of the company is Zhang Hongchao, who laid its foundation almost 30 years ago from scratch. Your story starts in 1997in Zhengzhou, when Zhang, then a university student, managed to get his grandmother to lend him 3,000 yuan ($420) to set up a small slushie and soft drink stand. Despite the challenges that were encountered along the way (and some other business failure), Zhang moved forward, managed to adapt to the changes in Zhenghou, reinvested in machinery and found the key to creating a million-dollar business. Sam Tang account that his first success came in 2006, when he launched ice creams for one yuan. In 2014, its brand already had 1,000 stores. In 2020 there were 10,000. And how has it succeeded? The big question. Mixue’s business model has several clear characteristics. The first, its commercial approach. The chain basically sells ice cream. soft servesmoothies, tea drinks and bubble teasalthough in your menu coffee and Fortune assures which in the future plans to expand its offering with beer. The other great features of your menu are the affordable priceswith ice creams for less than one euro. Other peculiarities of the company are its commitment to dominate the supply chainits commitment to a clearly identifiable brand thanks to symbols such as its mascot (Snow King) and, above all, an expansion through franchises. In a report from a few months ago the company itself recognizes that almost all of its stores (99%) are opened and operate through franchises. Mixue is responsible for supervising businesses, choosing locations, decoration and assessing the capacity of the staff. For her, the business is not so much in the fee that those stores then pay as in the equipment, merchandise and packaging that she sells to them. And the future? It doesn’t look bad. In spring the company went public in Hong Kong and managed to raise nearly 450 million of dollars, starring in one of its best premieres of the first half of 2025. The company seems willing also to get into the powerful (and disputed) US market. According to precise Fortuneduring the first half of the year the company reached a revenue volume of 2,000 million dollars (40% more than in 2024) with profits of 370 million. Despite its humble origins, its founder and his brother now manage a fortune of billions of dollars. Images | Choo Yut Shing (Flickr) 1 and 2 and Jeremy Thompson (Flickr) In Xataka | One of the biggest wine critics is French and has toured China. There is no good news for French wine

McDonald’s has not learned from Coca-Cola and has presented a Christmas advertisement made with AI. The reactions have been even worse

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Everything indicates that the negative reaction to use of AI in Coca-Cola Christmas ad It has set a precedent… but it has not discouraged large corporations. MacDonald’s has made its own greeting with synthetic images and the reaction has been so overwhelmingly negative that the company has decided to remove the spot from social networks. Once again, issues such as creativity, aesthetics, profitability over ethics and, above all, what majority reactions they are generating are put on the table. What has happened? McDonald’s Netherlands has withdrawn its Christmas campaign generated entirely with artificial intelligence after facing a avalanche of criticism on social networks (and after being forced to disconnect comments on their profiles). The advertisement, ironically titled “It’s the most terrible time of the year”, is a perversion of the classic Christmas carols, and showed disasters with a festive atmosphere: traffic jams in which Santa Claus is involved, rebellious fir trees, unpalatable family members… the whole pack of suffering of these dates, to remind us that at least we have McDonald’s left. The problem. As happened with Coca-Cola, the problem is twofold. Aesthetically, the result is spooky.: Disturbing physics, expressionless faces, slapstick humor taken to the extreme because of that strange elastic and surreal violence of the AI. But above all, it makes viewers and critics wonder about the ethical legitimacy of this type of operationswhich completely dispense with human capital to produce more and faster. We are facing the first steps of an experimentone that corporations will put into full gear as soon as public rejection eases. Who has done it. The burger brand had entrusted production to the Californian duo MAMA (Mark Potoka and Matt Starr Spice), together with the AI ​​division The Gardening.club of the studio The Sweetshop. In a post that has since been deleted, the directors defended their work: The announcement required “seven intense weeks” of work, investing in it “more hours than in traditional production. Their central argument: “AI didn’t do it. We did it.” The controversy with Coca-Cola. The McDonald’s disaster represents the year’s second major Christmas controversy involving AI-generated advertising. A month ago Coca-Cola ignited a similar debate by launching its remake of the iconic 1995 ‘Holidays Are Coming’ spot, this time produced using generative artificial intelligence and starring animals… after the poor reception that a spot with the same concept but starring people had in 2024. The Atlanta multinational hired three specialized studios (Secret Level, Silverside AI and Wild Card), but the reaction from the public and critics was devastating. A reflection on that rejection, in reference to the 2024 ad with non-existent humans: Tim Halloran, who worked for a decade in Coca-Cola’s brand management division, stated that the campaign constituted “a violation of the brand promise” of Coca-Cola since, “for years, the core of that brand has been the idea of ​​authenticity.” Toys R Us too. Ahead of Coca-Cola’s first spot, in June 2024, Toys R Us debuted “the first commercial ad created with Sora,” OpenAI’s text-to-video tool. The one-minute spot narrated the origins of the company through its founder Charles Lazarus, combining images of the boy who would end up creating the store with the mascot Geoffrey the Giraffe in completely synthetic sequences. The industry reaction was almost unanimouswith people like Joe Russo stating in X that the ad It was “shit”. The impact on brand perception was measured Marketing-Interactivedocumenting negative reactions from 53.4% ​​of the spot’s viewers. The problem of authenticity. Behind the rejection of these ads there is a deeper problem than mere poor technical execution. In December 2024, NielsenIQ published research that revealed how viewers cognitively processed AI-generated advertising, and the result was not very promising: consumers consistently rated these contents as “annoying,” “boring,” and “confusing,” even when the technical quality was high. Neeraj Arora, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explained why the rejection is particularly acute in the Christmas context, with special attention to the Coca-Cola spot: “The holidays are a time of connection, of community, of coming together with family, and that’s a big part of what the holidays are about. But when you introduce AI into the mix, it doesn’t fit: it doesn’t fit with the festive moment, but also, to a certain degree, it doesn’t fit with Coca-Cola and what the brand stands for.” Christmas, traditionally a space of emotional authenticity, collides head-on with the synthetic nature of AI. Controversial results. The cases of McDonald’s and Coca-Cola illustrate a contradictory reality: the speed of production and cost savings that AI promises do not necessarily compensate for the loss of emotional connection with audiences. The consumers are developing rapidly the ability to identify synthetic content, and their immediate reaction is rejection. In Xataka | The secret formula of Coca-Cola is in a safe in a town in Valencia. The same one who claims his authorship

McDonald’s has a problem in Japan with the dolls of ‘One Piece’ and ‘Pokémon’ of the Happy Meal: they sell too much

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McDonald’s is running in Japan with a reception of such caliber for his Happy Meals that he is being forced to cancel promotions early. First with letters from ‘Pokémon‘And then with dolls from ‘One Piece’the traditional gifts of their children’s menus are being grass of collectors that are generating A crisis not only foodbut also of image. What happened. This last August McDonald’s He has been forced to cancel a promotion: They gave cards Pokémon with his Happy Meal, but franchise collectors were presented at restaurants to buy large amounts of menus, interested in the cards and with the intention of reselling them, as collected a company statement. Then they got rid of food, which led to a “massive food waste”, only three days after the start of the campaign, on August 11. Some solutions. To solve the problem, before the definitive cancellation of the promotion, McDonald’s established a maximum of purchases per person, but the collectors raffled the ban on tail several times. The hamburger chain also asked the country’s online sale platforms that they did not accept, or at least they will limit the Pokémon cards to carry the McDonald’s seal. None of that was enough and forced the chain to suspend the promotion in record time. One Piece, again. The phenomenon It was repeatedin a very short time, with ‘One Piece’. The popular anime series was going to be subject to the next promotion of Happy Meal, but seeing what happened with Pokémon, the chain has momentarily canceled the campaign, which would have started on August 29. McDonald’s is facing a dilemma: to make toys attractive enough to sell hamburgers, but not so much to generate problems. It is not the first time. Pokémon may seem almost isolated (after all, according to experts, We talk about the object collectable more expensive in the world. But it is not the first time that this happens to McDonalds, which has already been seen in similar situations on other occasions: the K-Pop group BTSFor example, launched a menu in 2021 in 50 different countries. In some as Indonesia there were problems of minor stocks and disturbances. In 2015, on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Independence of Singapore, McDonald’s launched some hello kitty dolls in limited edition, dressed in typical costumes of the country, which caused very long queues and existent problems. Finally, and leaving Asia, in the United States in 2022 McDonald’s announced a menu In collaboration with the urban clothing brand Cactus Plant Flea Marketwith four characters dressed in firm’s clothes. On the same day of the launch the menu was already exhausted. China is guilty (says Japan). There is another example of frustrated promotions that has a lot to do with it: in May of this year, McDonald’s canceled a Happy Meal promotion where they included dolls from the ‘Chikawa’ manga series. They disappeared in hours And the chain detected that it could be due to the posterior resale among collectors, in fact also observed that it was organized purchase networks. According to Some clients came to comment on social networksthey were Chinese resellers who used the orders via mobile to exceed the maximum of four orders per person that allowed McDonald’s. Many of the Happy Meals items later appeared, in effect, on China’s sale and collecting websites. Header | McDonald’s In Xataka | ‘Pokémon TGC Pocket’ is breaking it and rightly: Pokémon’s card game is thought to the millimeter

McDonald’s used a chatbot with AI to recruit new employees. Someone seemed to ‘123456’ was a safe password

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No one argues that AI The labor market will changeto begin with, it is already very present in the Recruitment processes of personnel McDonald’s franchisees in the US use a chatbot of recruitment based on AI which collects and manages the data of the millions of new candidates who want to work in one of the restaurants in the hamburger chain. However, such and as they publish in Wiredwho configured it forgot something as basic as changing the original password of the administrator of the entire platform. The selection chatbot. McDonald’s uses a platform called Mchire, developed by Paradox.AI, to manage the Personnel selection process through a chatbot known as Olivia. When a candidate shows interest in a job offer, the chatbot comes into play and requests candidates for personal data, shift preferences and directs them to perform a personality test to process their candidacy. The use of artificial intelligence intended Without human intervention. However, such and as they counted Ian Carroll and Sam Curry, the researchers who unintentionally discovered the ruling, were two things that caught their attention. The first one was a Reddit thread in which it was ensured that the McDonald’s hiring AI was giving Some funny failures Going crazy to the candidates who tried to leave their job application. The second thing that led them to investigate a little more about the McDonald’s hiring chatbot was that it seemed very strange that The replacement the curriculums For a personality test. “It seemed quite dystopic compared to a normal hiring process, right? And that was what encouraged me to investigate it more thoroughly,” Carroll said. The security failure: “123456”. Researchers Ian Carroll and Sam Curry have Much experience in cybersecurityso no one is surprising that they have managed to violate the security of a platform. However, as they report in their blog, they did not need any of their great technical knowledge to take control of the platform as administrators. They simply accessed the Mchire portal, which is the platform after the chatbot of employee hiring for the McDonald’s franchises, and used the password “123456” in the access and access password fields. “That allowed us, any other person, access to any entrance tray and recover the personal data of more than 64 million applicants,” said cybersecurity experts. This access not only allowed to see the data of the candidates, but also intervene in the conversations and ongoing selection processes. “It turned out that we had become administrators of a test restaurant within the Mchire system. We could see that all restaurant employees were simply employees of Paradox.AI, the company behind Mchire.” The data were not exposed. After confirming that it was really a real security vulnerability, the researchers immediately contacted Paradox.AI, which, which He published a statement explaining that “only a small part of the records accessed by the researchers contained personal information” and that “the account ‘123456’ that exposed this data had not been accessed by anyone but the researchers.” In addition, he explained that the compromised credential was a trial account that “had not been used since 2019 and, frankly, should have been deactivated“ McDonald’s responsible for his supplier ensuring that “we are disappointed by this unacceptable vulnerability of an external supplier, Paradox.AI. As soon as we knew the problem, we ordered Paradox. Paradox. The without surveillance. The work context makes the data presented especially Attractive for cybercriminalswhich shows the importance of providing additional security layers to Chatbots based on AI They manage such sensitive data. “If someone had exploited this, Phishing’s risk would have been really huge. It is not just identifiable personal information and curriculum. It is that information from people looking for work in McDonald’s, people who are waiting with anxious Electronic response emails“The researchers said. In Xatakto | Builder.AI promised to revolutionize the programming with its AI. There were actually 700 Indians behind it, picing code Image | Wikimedia Commons (Dirk Tussing)

McDonald’s launches a new Pokémon Happy Meal

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McDonald’s made new announcements before ending the first month of the year with the launch of new Pokémon Happy Meal starting January 21 and for a limited time in all restaurants in the country. The popular happy meal, which will be available until the end of February, comes in four designs inspired by fan-favorite Pokémon: Rayquaza, Charizard, Pikachu with Dragonite, and Roaring Moon. The new Pokémon Happy Meal arrives in stores nationwide for a limited time.Credit: McDonald’s | Courtesy It is about the McDonald’s third collaboration with Pokémonlet us remember that in 1999 was the first when the first Pokémon movie was released and Pokémania occurred. And the most recent was in 2021 to celebrate Pokémon’s 25th anniversary, according to Today. What does the Pokémon Happy Meal bring? The new Happy Meal includes a Pokémon TCG booster pack featuring four of the 15 collectible Pokémon TCG cards from this edition of the Pokémon Happy Meal. Plus, it comes with a sticker sheet that you can use to decorate whatever you want, including the included Pokémon poster. The Happy Meal has traditional options such as: 4-piece McNuggets, 6-piece McNuggets or hamburger, a drink, fries and apple slices. This edition of the happy meal comes with digital surprises, Since with every purchase customers make from McDonald’s app suits, they will get a free in-game bonus in the Pokémon TCG Pocket app. This is a one-time redeemable code that allows players to unlock 24 Hourglasses and 12 Wonder Hourglasses. Pokémon Go players will also be able to visit PokéStops or sponsored Gyms at all McDonald’s restaurants in the US, according to a release. The excitement of the Happy Meal The box has the fans’ favorite characters.Credit: McDonald’s | Courtesy McDonald’s senior marketing director Guillaume Huin, ““There is nothing more exciting than being able to offer campaigns to our fans with partners we are fans of.” This campaign seeks to offer a product that has a special appreciation from fans. “Just like McDonald’s, our fans have a deep nostalgia and love for the Pokémon brand. “We are thrilled to take advantage of those great memories and create a new moment of fun and happiness with the new Pokémon Happy Meal.” Keep reading:

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