Also read: multicultural missteps, McDonald's, diversity training, branding, marketing, Blacks

Editor's Note: This article was edited Aug. 27 to include McDonald's statement on 365Black.com.

McDonald's web site for the Black community, 365Black.com, is the subject of online furor from bloggers and social-network users, who deem the site offensive and say it perpetuates stereotypes about the Black community.

McDonald's Chief Marketing Officer Neil Golden sent DiversityInc the following statement:

At McDonald's, we always listen to our customers, taking their feedback and perspectives into consideration. It is never our intent to offend anyone. We know that many of our customers enjoy an interaction with our brand that goes beyond mcdonalds.com. That is why we offer people with diverse interests an opportunity to interact with our brand in ways that may be different from how others experience McDonald's. We proudly support programming for African American, Asian and Hispanic consumers, as well as sites designed to provide families and sports enthusiasts with engaging brand experiences, while also providing information about our food, programs and social responsibility. All of McDonald's Web sites link to McDonalds.com, which provides any visitor with a wealth of information about our company. 365Black.com was launched in 2003 as part of the overall 365Black program that recognizes the contributions that African Americans make across the country. We respect that there are differing opinions. As a company, we're proud of our long history of diversity and inclusion as evidenced by McDonald's restaurant staff, owner/operators, suppliers and corporate employees. We will continue to explore ways that help us to maintain a relationship with our customers and that enable them to connect with our brand in a way that is meaningful to them.

Their issue is that the web site doesn't reflect the diversity of the Black community and that in the execution of this web site, McDonald's is positioning itself as an expert on the Black community, which the company is not.

DiversityInc cannot assess the accuracy of McDonald's commitment to the Black community since the fast-food giant chose this year for the first time in recent years not to participate in The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^® and we do not, therefore, have their data to assess.

How can you avoid multicultural missteps? Learn how DiversityInc Top 50 companies brand themselves as diversity leaders and see best practices for cultural sensitivity at DiversityIncBestPractices.com.

McDonald's spokesperson Julie Pottebaum tells DiversityInc she does not have a statement addressing this specific issue but that McDonald's is working on a statement to address these concerns. Chief Marketing Officer Neil Golden, in a statement to Time, said the company was "proud to celebrate the diversity of our customers who reflect the diversity of our society." He praised the site, calling it a place where customers can "meet real people who's [sic] lives have been touched by McDonald's."

The viral campaign against the site began to spread late last week, when Muhammad Saleem, the director of social media strategy for the Chicago Tribune's Chicago Now, posted a link to the web site on Digg.com. By Sunday, 365Black was the second most-popular site on Digg.com and quickly became a trend on Twitter, according to Time.com. The anger over the site continued to grow on Monday as commentators discovered an additional McDonald's web site targeting the Asian community, named MyInspirAsian.

"Even if the idea was a good one and truly was promoting Black cultural heritage, it really does come off as manipulation and stereotyping," says Saleem. "It's part of a larger problem: McDonald's doesn't have the sort of brand loyalty and trust to be able to have this sort of campaign and have it be embraced."

Is this another example of an ethnic marketing misstep? McDonald's recently was in the news for distributing Happy Meal toys that offended American Indians.

McDonald's six-year-old web site, which, according to the site, is intended to "celebrate Black history 365 days a year," features testimonials about experiences at McDonald's, as well as scholarship information and job opportunities.

But all the testimonials are from Black employees, customers or contest winners. The partnerships feature only Black actors. One page even draws an analogy to the African Baobab tree, saying, "like the unique African Baobab tree, which nourishes its community with its leaves and fruit, McDonald's has branched out to the African-American community nourishing it with valuable programs and opportunities." And for some, that was the final straw.

Writers at Steel Closet, a multi-interest blog, wrote: "I'm not the crazy activist type who gets all riled up when I see an offensive ad. In fact, I welcome some insensitivity if the laugh is big enough. But I had to do a double-take with this one. McDonald's actually WENT THERE with its 365 Black Campaign. The premise of it is to celebrate Black pride and culture and dedicate 365 days to it, rather than just your standard Black History Month."

He continued: "In theory, this campaign is a good thing and could potentially help further a community that has been historically disenfranchised. In practice, its genuineness just falls apart for a number of reasons. The main one is McDonald's being a huge corporation not historically known for adamantly fighting for civil rights. More accurately, one would suspect McDonald's is actually attempting to capitalize on the Black community's historical disenfranchisement to sling some burgers."

Social-networking users on other sites demanded a site called 365White or a 365Hispanic.

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