McDonald’s confirmed it’s running a limited pilot showing other brands’ ads on digital menu boards at select company-owned restaurants. The ads appear after you order. The test surfaced two days before the company’s first investor day in three years.
McDonald’s wants to sell you something else while your fries are cooking.
The company confirmed it’s testing advertisements from other brands on its digital menu boards, Bloomberg reported Sept. 21. The pilot is running at a limited number of company-owned restaurants.
The ads show up after you’ve already placed your order.
At least it isn’t your own refrigerator posting ads this time.
The ads come after you order, not before
McDonald’s is not putting ads on the screen while you’re deciding what to buy. It’s using the screens during the wait, after the sale is done.
After they make money on your order, they make money off your wait.
A spokesperson described the pilot as “exploring ways to share post-purchase content that customers may find helpful, relevant, or interesting,” while keeping the McDonald’s experience at the center of each visit.
Put plainly, they are not risking the menu itself. They’re monetizing the part where you’re standing there with nothing to look at.
The screens have been there for years
The company started installing digital menu boards about a decade ago as part of a broad restaurant modernization push. By 2019, more than 11,000 US drive-thrus had them. Many restaurants also have digital boards inside, next to the touchscreen ordering kiosks.
So the hardware is already paid for. Selling space on it costs almost nothing.
This is called retail media, and it’s very profitable
Grocery stores figured this out first.
Retail media means a company sells ad space across its own physical and digital properties, then uses its customer data to help advertisers target and measure those ads. Your local supermarket does it on shelf displays, on its app, and on its website.
A McKinsey & Co. survey found retail media can make up 3% to 10% of a grocer’s total profit.
Research from Forrester Consulting found that fast food chains have lagged behind retailers at turning customer data into an advertising business.
McDonald’s has the audience to catch up fast. The company says it serves about 26 million people in the US every day across more than 13,700 restaurants, and reaches nearly 90% of the US population over the course of a year.
The timing points at the investor day
McDonald’s is holding its first investor day in three years today, Sept. 23. The ad test was confirmed two days earlier.
Investor days exist to show Wall Street a growth story. Retail media is close to a perfect one. It’s high margin, the infrastructure already exists, and it doesn’t require selling a single extra burger.
The company needs that story right now. Comparable sales in its most recent quarter grew at the slowest pace in more than a year, hurt by rising costs and softer restaurant traffic.
McDonald’s has responded by leaning into value pricing, refreshing restaurants and pushing on food quality and service.
Ads on the menu board are a different kind of answer.
The Monopoly game also collects data on you for ads
McDonald’s Monopoly returns Oct. 6. To play, customers must download the McDonald’s app, opt in to MyMcDonald’s Rewards, and register for the game. Every game piece gets scanned in the app. The promotion runs through Nov. 1, with prize claims open until Nov. 22.
Retail media runs on customer data. Targeting and measurement are what advertisers pay extra for.
A nationwide promotion that pushes millions of people into a rewards account and an app produces a lot of that data.
McDonald’s has not said the two are connected, and there is no indication they were designed together. But an ad pilot and a data-collection engine running in the same quarter is a useful coincidence.
What McDonald’s hasn’t said
Quite a lot remains unclear.
The company has not said how many restaurants are in the test, which markets they’re in, which brands are advertising, or how long the pilot runs.
It also has not said whether the ads would eventually appear at franchised locations. That matters, because roughly 95% of US McDonald’s restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchisees, not the company. This test is specifically at company-owned stores.
Expanding it would mean bringing thousands of franchise owners along.
For now, it’s a pilot. If the numbers work, expect more ads in your life.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
Bloomberg (Sept. 21, 2026), the original report on the menu board advertising pilot and the McDonald’s confirmation
Dexerto (Sept. 22, 2026), Dylan Horetski’s reporting on the test, the spokesperson statement, the digital screen rollout history, the McKinsey and Forrester findings and the investor day timing
McDonald’s USA via PR Newswire (Sept. 22, 2026), the Monopoly promotion details, app requirements and dates
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