McDonald's Corp. is cutting advertising spending after an accounting error left the nation's leading fast-food chain nearly $20 million over budget, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
The mistake was only recently discovered by Chicago-based Leo Burnett, the advertising agency for the company.To make matters worse, McDonald's miscalculated May sales projections, overestimating revenue by $4.1 million, the Journal reported.
The budgeting mistake occurred when Burnett's media department apparently overlooked two weeks of costs while drawing up the media budget. The Journal reported that when it came time to balance commitments with actual advertising dollars, McDonald's found it faced a $19.7 million deficit.
McDonald's is considering making up the shortfall by asking television networks to give it refunds for ads that did not reach a promised minimum audience, the newspaper said.