Everything has an origin

Background

70% of the ingredients used by McDonald's to make hamburgers in Spain come from local suppliers. To demonstrate its continued support for Spanish farmers, the brand wanted to follow up it’s ‘Big Good’ campaign when they created a new product, a burger made only from locallysourced ingredients.

Idea

McDonald’s emblematic totem poles were erected in the fields from which their ingredients came, thus making a statement about the quality of its products.

The first pole was placed in a field in Murcia, where McDonald’s lettuces were grown. The second was placed on a farm in Lugo, Northern Spain, where the cheese was made and a third was located in Soria, where part of the cereals used to make top quality flour that makes the buns was made.

The brand plans to continue to reveal the exact source of its ingredients in an ongoing campaign. Once the activity is over, all the signs will be recycled, in line with the company's commitment to sustainability and the environment.

Results

Not yet available.

Our Thoughts

This is one of those campaigns designed for secondary and even tertiary media. Few people are going to see the McDonald’s sign in the lettuce field. But they will in their newspaper or somewhere in social media.

I think what McDonald’s is really trying to do here is combat Burger King’s ‘Mouldy Whopper’ claim that their burgers are free from additives. Rightly or wrongly, many would have interpreted that as a swipe at the Big Mac, suggesting it must be quivering with chemicals. McDonald’s simply had to defend themselves.