Franchise Means Local: Pop culture spotlight meets policy debate

Pop culture has a way of revealing truths long before policymakers catch up.

Lately, franchising keeps showing up in cultural moments not because it’s trendy, but because it’s already embedded in everyday American life. From reality television to headline-making celebrities, these moves highlight that franchising isn’t abstract, corporate, or distant. It’s local. That especially matters as policymakers debate the future of the franchise model.

Cultural moments

When Angie Katsanevas, founder of Lunatic Fringe Salons, told a castmate on “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” “You do french fries; I do franchise,” the line went viral. It was funny, sharp, and revealing.

The moment resonated because it captured something real: Franchising is ownership. She was talking about building businesses, employing people, and investing locally. Her story wasn’t scripted for TV or policy debates; it landed because it reflected the passion behind a lived experience.

The same is true when Megan Thee Stallion made headlines not just as an artist, but as a franchise owner, opening a Popeyes restaurant in Miami Beach, Florida, and partnering with Dunkin’. Those stories don’t register as corporate news. They register as cultural moments because they’re about ownership, opportunity, and local presence.

Viral moments don’t invent franchising’s relevance, but they reflect it. They resonate because franchise businesses are already part of how Americans experience work, entrepreneurship, and community. The big names help remind America of what franchising is all about.

Local impact

What culture reveals, data confirms.

Franchising works because it combines the scale of a trusted brand with the independence of local ownership. Most franchisees, about 82%, operate a single location. New IFA research further reveals the local impact and community value of franchised businesses. IFA’s new “Value of Franchising” report shows that nearly all franchise owners employ fewer than 50 people. Sixty-four percent are first-time business owners, and another 30% say they would not own a business at all without the franchise model’s training, systems, and support.

This is the reality behind the logos. Eighty-five percent of owners live where they work. They hire locally. They source locally. They give back locally. That’s not a marketing message; it’s how the model is designed to function.

Our research shows how franchise businesses deliver stronger wage growth, greater access to benefits, and clearer career pathways for employees. They are more resilient and more rooted. They have expanded access to entrepreneurship for veterans, women, and people of color, groups historically underrepresented in business ownership.

This is why “Franchise Means Local” isn’t just a campaign; it’s a description of how franchising operates.

Restoring clarity

As labor and employment debates intensify, franchising is increasingly misunderstood in policy conversations. Too often, franchise relationships are treated as loopholes rather than what they are: legitimate, time-tested structures that enable local ownership at scale.

When policymakers blur the line between franchisor and franchisee, they don’t just create legal uncertainty; they undermine the incentives that make local investment possible. If franchise owners are no longer recognized as independent small business operators, risk shifts upward, growth slows, and opportunity contracts. The consequences fall not on corporate headquarters, but on local owners, workers, and communities.

The American Franchise Act is about restoring clarity. It recognizes franchisees as the independent small business owners they are and ensures that labor policy reflects reality, not assumptions.

Protecting franchising isn’t about defending brands. It’s about protecting a model that has enabled millions of Americans to build businesses, create jobs, and invest locally.

If policy is meant to reflect how people live and work, then franchising deserves to be understood and protected for what it truly is: local, entrepreneurial, and essential.

Story to Tell

On Jan. 22, Katsanevas testified before Congress about the franchise business model: what it enables, how it works, and why clarity matters for local owners like her.

Katsanevas didn’t go to Washington, D.C., as a reality TV personality. She went as a small business owner with a story to tell, as an employer, and as someone who understands firsthand how franchising creates opportunity while keeping decision-making rooted locally. Her testimony underscored what data and culture have already made clear: Franchising succeeds because it empowers independent owners, not despite it.

That’s why the American Franchise Act matters now. At a moment when policymakers are reconsidering how work, ownership, and responsibility should be defined, they must hear from the people operating these businesses, not just the headlines or the assumptions.

When pop culture collides with franchising, it’s not an accident. It’s because franchising already sits at the intersection of work, ownership, and community long before lawmakers debate it in hearing rooms.

Culture shows it.

“Franchise Means Local” proves it.

The American Franchise Act protects it.

And as Congress hears directly from franchise owners themselves, the case for protecting this uniquely local, entrepreneurial model has never been clearer. n

Matt Haller is president & CEO of the International Franchise Association.