In an emailed statement to
the Huffington Post, McDonalds' franchisee Karen Mezan reiterated that the flag's position was an ill-timed mistake, and not intended to be a political statement:
"Unfortunately, a flag cable broke and during the process of trying the fix the flag, it was inadvertently turned upside down. It wasn't noticed that the flag was upside down until a customer inquired about it. We are working on fixing the flag right now. It’s important to note that this was an accident, not intentional."