McDonald’s kicked off National Hiring Day today, the fast-food company’s ambitious campaign to add 50,000 new workers to its 600,000-strong workforce.

While the hiring event has garnered McDonald’s positive press for putting people to work at a time when unemployment remains stubbornly high nationwide, what’s more intriguing is the company’s integration of recruitment and marketing to bolster employer brand and put employees front and center.

With the associated marketing campaign, McDonald’s wants to shed the negative connotations of the ‘McJob’ — a term used to describe low-pay, dead-end jobs — by highlighting opportunities for career growth and development.

“The creative part is really highlighting the people at McDonald’s and dispelling the myths that there isn’t opportunity working here,” Marlena Peleo-Lazar, McDonald’s USA global creative officer, told Advertising Age.

Effective talent management lies at the heart of that rebranding message. According to McDonald’s self-reported numbers, more than 50 percent of franchise owners and 75 percent of restaurant managers started as crew workers.

“Marketers have finally made the connection between employee satisfaction and consumer satisfaction,” said Dawn Hrdlica-Burke, vice president of people for Daxko, a provider of software to nonprofit organizations and contributor to the HR blog, Fistful of Talent.

On hiring day, job seekers can either go to the company’s website or head to any of McDonald’s 14,000 locations nationwide to apply. The event is supported by an advertising campaign that features employees sharing how they got their start at the company, from Karen King, the president of the east division of McDonald’s USA, to Mary Louise Moss, a drive-thru cashier in Chandler, Arizona.

McDonald’s isn’t alone in using employees to market the corporate brand. In September 2010, Farmer’s Insurance began a national advertising campaign featuring veteran actor J.K. Simmons as Professor Burke, a fictional instructor at the real-life University of Farmers, to highlight the training and development agents receive.