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McDonald's Launches Media Network, Eyes $1 Billion Ad Business

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McDonald's is building its own advertising network, following Amazon and Walmart, and hopes it could grow into a $1 billion business.

McDonald's said on Wednesday that it will build its own media network, selling advertising space across its restaurant system in a move that copies the playbook of retail giants Amazon and Walmart. The company made the announcement at its investor day, held at its Chicago headquarters.

The program is already in a pilot phase. In August, 450 company-owned U.S. restaurants began showing advertisements for other companies on their digital drive-thru order boards. The pilot has not yet reached the franchisees who run most of the chain's roughly 14,000 U.S. locations. Even so, McDonald's said the venture could eventually become a $1 billion business.

Morgan Flatley, the company's global chief marketing officer and executive vice president of new business ventures, framed the timing around a fast-expanding market. "Commerce media is one of the fastest-growing areas in advertising, and it's expected to reach more than $100 billion in the U.S. alone by 2028," she said during an investor presentation.

Flatley described the appeal in blunt financial terms. "It's an opportunity to generate revenue for the system with little in the way of additional cost, no operational complexity and no disruption to our customer experience," she said.

The potential for high-margin revenue arrives as McDonald's faces rising costs. Prices for key inputs such as beef are climbing, and the chain plans to spend billions of dollars on restaurant upgrades over the next decade. A steady advertising income stream could help offset those pressures.

A first for the restaurant industry

Within the restaurant business, McDonald's would be a pioneer in running its own media network. Chief Financial Officer Ian Borden told CNBC that the company's scale sets it apart from other advertisers.

"We have one of the most valuable brands of any company of our size and scale in any industry," Borden said. He pointed to the chain's reach as its main advantage: "We serve about 85% of the U.S. population at least once a year, so we have reach that's quite unique, and we have 14,000 locations across the U.S., which means we're in every community, and we're connecting with every consumer."

That reach is the core asset McDonald's is now trying to sell to advertisers. The drive-thru boards in the pilot put brand messages in front of customers at the point of purchase, a moment retailers have found valuable.

What Amazon and Walmart have shown

McDonald's is drawing on a model that has already proven lucrative for large retailers. Amazon reported $68.6 billion in advertising service sales in 2025, a figure that accounted for just under 10% of the company's total revenue. Amazon's ads appear across its shopping pages, on Prime Video, on its delivery lockers and on its live streaming platform Twitch, as well as on third-party apps and websites.

Walmart has built a similar operation. The retailer does not disclose specific sales figures for its advertising arm, but it said Connect, its U.S. ad business, grew sales 43% in its fiscal second quarter. Walmart runs ads on its app, on its website and inside its more than 4,600 U.S. stores, and it also places them on outside platforms such as Instagram. In late 2024, Walmart bought television maker Vizio, a deal aimed partly at expanding its advertising business.

These networks tend to be high-margin operations, which is a large part of their appeal. For McDonald's, the same logic applies: it can charge advertisers to use screens and space it already owns, without adding significant expense.

The media network was not the only initiative McDonald's laid out at its investor day. Executives also detailed plans to lift sales through costly restaurant upgrades and improvements to food quality. The advertising venture, however, marks the company's clearest attempt yet to turn its enormous physical and customer footprint into a new source of revenue rather than relying solely on selling food.

McDonald's media network, commerce media, McDonald's advertising, retail media, Morgan Flatley, Ian Borden, drive-thru ads, McDonald's investor day

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