Poor Mickey D's. First, it sells its stake in Chipotle only to see that brand eclipse its own growth, and then it becomes the poster child for underpaid workers.
Rather than serving better food and making its franchisers pay a living wage, McDonald's decided that the real problem was that the brand needed burnishing.
The result: an aborted "Lovin' Beats Hatin'" campaign and a yuppie reboot of the already creepy Hamburglar.
Lesson learned: You can't fix a product problem by updating the brand.