McDonald’s redesigns coffee cups to promote COVID-19 vaccination
(NEXSTAR) — McDonald’s customers can soon order their morning coffee with milk, sugar and vaccine information.
McDonald’s has partnered with the Biden administration to begin providing COVID-19 vaccination information on its coffee cups and McDelivery seal stickers, as a way to help promote vaccine confidence in the communities where its restaurants operate. The new cups will be printed with the slogan “We Can Do This” — which is the name of a public health campaign created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — as well as “vaccines.gov,” the address of an HHS resource for finding nearby vaccination sites.
The new cups will begin appearing at McDonald’s restaurants in July.
“This is a team effort — it takes all of us,” said Genna Gent, vice president for global public policy and government relations with McDonald’s USA, in a press release issued Tuesday morning. “We’re proud to enter this partnership to provide trusted, independently verified information about COVID-19 vaccines to our customers in the nearly 14,000 communities we serve.”
In addition to the cups and stickers, McDonald’s has announced that its Times Square billboard will begin displaying vaccine information from “trusted third parties” as well as the White House and the HHS’s “We Can Do This” campaign.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra endorsed the chain’s efforts in a statement included with the press release.
“This effort will help more people make informed decisions about their health and learn about steps they can take to protect themselves and their communities,” said Becerra.
Earlier this year, McDonald’s also announced that its U.S. employees will be provided up to four hours of paid time to receive the vaccine. The restaurant chain, however, is not currently requiring that its employees be vaccinated, but rather “actively encouraging” it.