Today’s episode is a talk with Cabel Sasser, the co-founder of the software company and video game publisher Panic, and full disclosure, also Mike’s former boss. But we’re not here to talk about software or video games. We’re here because Cabel discovered Wes Cook, a McDonald’s artist (and so much more).

The Blind Push of Vision 2020

McDonald’s transformed out of the Mascot Era of using Ronald McDonald, Grimace, Mayor McCheese, and their other characters with the Vision 2020 plan (a plan leading up to 2020 which was started around 2017).

Part of this plan was the EOTF, or Experience of the Future, which included the ordering kiosks as part of a major redesign for stores. To incentivize the franchisee owners McDonald’s offered to cover 55% of the costs of the remodel if an owner was able to complete the renovation by a specific date. This was free money no operator wanted to turn down. And this is where the new generic feel of a modern McDonald’s came from.

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