In the spirit of progress and collaboration, I asked McDonald’s to meet with me to discuss our campaign and the future of a plant-based burger on U.S. menus. But again, McDonald’s didn’t want to listen to its customers. Instead, the VP of Global Communications, Michael Gonda, responded with this tone-deaf statement:  

“As a customer obsessed, modern and progressive burger company, we’re committed to offering a variety of menu choices. That often starts by listening to customers to understand changing trends and evolving tastes—so any and all feedback is appreciated.”

So I went to McDonald’s HQ in Chicago on Thursday to give them that feedback. And to bring the voices of 220k customers to the doors of their headquarters.

And McDonald’s leadership had no choice but to listen to its customer-base asking for McDonald’s to follow Burger King, White Castle and McDonald’s Germany, Sweden, Finland, India, and Australia in offering a plant-based burger on their U.S. menu.

At the event, hundreds of Chicagoans taste tested Burger King’s Impossible Whopper for the very first time, and customers from around the country had their voices hand-delivered to McDonald’s with the help of the Vegan Hamburglar. The colorful plant-based party was illustrative of the power and excitement plant-based meat is already bringing to Burger King and can bring to McDonald’s menus—because the plant-based meat trend is not going away.

We will continue to fight. But I know, we are one step closer to the day McDonald’s stops “listening” and takes action to make the McVegan as much of a staple on their U.S. menu as the Big Mac.