The Ongoing Transformation of the McDonald's Logo: A Semiotic Perspective

This paper examines the ongoing transformation of the McDonald's logo. The objective is to achieve a fuller understanding of the meanings that the logo has embodied for McDonald's identity, mission, and relationships, as well as the messages that the logo conveys to viewers. The semiotic framework used in this analysis is Peirce's (1958 [1931]) semiotic model, composed of a three-part model of signification: the representamen (the sign itself), the object (or "referent" - what the sign refers to), and the interpretant (the effect on the viewer). A chief conclusion of this analysis is that the communicative purpose of McDonald's, through its logo, has taken a long time to build and is "evolutionary" in nature.