Ads – Ideas for Social Impact

Logo Design & Ideas in McDonald’s Advertisement

MCD’s Golden Arch Design

McDonald’s, the biggest fast-food chain in the world, is easily recognizable with its logo. With its long brand history beside us, we can easily spot the brand even with small parts of its logo. Their ads won awards and got viral over and over. Here are some best practices that might help you earn insights.

Drive Safe. Never Hungry(DDB Prague, Prague, Czech Republic)

McDonald’s Czech Republic used the Arch to stress “safety” while driving. The Arch is repurposed as a part of a visual that demonstrates the safety guidelines for a driver.

Social Distancing(DPZ&T, Brazil)

McDonald’s in Brazil separated the brand’s iconic Golden Arches.

Against the coronavirus pandemic, McDonald’s Brazil has split its Golden Arches into two to promote and encourage social distancing. According to the brand, the separated logo conveys the meaning that “we are separated for a moment so that we can always be together”. (AdAge)

I’m Lovin Summer (DDB, Sydney, Australia)

Summer is the beloved season in Australia. It’s also the season for water sports, ice cream, and outdoor activities. In the ad, McDonald’s combined their logo with summer items so that consumers can remind the brand with summer.

Other Visual Ads

Follow the Arches – Next Exit(Cosette Toronto, Canada)

The ad is comprised of four pieces: “Next Exit”; “Just Missed Us”; “On Your Left”; and “On Your Right”. The Arch in the billboard ads is cur part to guide hungry motorists to its nearest outlet.

Iftar Sand Clocks(Leo Burnett, Saudi Arabia)

The sand lock falls down for 12 hours, the period of fasting. The fell grains slowly compose a McDonald’s meal. After 12 hours, customers can break the fast and enjoy the meal.

The Right Way(TBWA, Paris)

French fries become a signage to guide direction. With its minimalism design approach, McDonald’s French fries are transformed into directional arrows.

Open Late(Leo Burnett, Italy)

McDonald’s promotes the late opening of its restaurants with their food image. Fries and hamburger buns are used t o illustrate different phases of the moon.

McCafe(Leo’s Thjnk Tank, Germany)

The golden arch shapes the tired and wide-open eyes. The comparison shows that McCafe can help you beat tiredness.

If you see the signs, you are probably hungry(DDB Athens, Greece)

The Arch dimly shows up in the poster. City lights, traffic back lights, skid marks form the Golden Arch. This ad tells that when you are hungry, you see the things that you crave.

Moving Day Campaign(Cosette Toronto, Canada)

In celebration of July 1, or “Moving Day” in Quebec, McDonald’s came up with an ad that shows the rear view of a wide-open truck. Furniture and household items compose best known dishes of McDonald’s – Big Mac, Mac morning, and fries.

Mobile Odering is HERE(Cossette, Canada)

The design is simple, but the image that the ad casts is vivid. The color and shape of stacked phones reflects something that we know well – bic Mac, fries, and mac morning. This ad tells us that when you need McDonald’s, you can have them at your hand.

Burger Companies are going against the grain

The Beauty of Less

Burger King, the Moldy Whopper campaign

Food advertisements typically stimulate people’s appetite with mouth-watering visuals. Or fancy video clips that zoom the lettuce falls under water splash take over the full screen.

This year, however, Burger King made a bold decision against the mundane practice. There were no videos that highlight lettuce falling with water splash or beef patty grilled. Instead, Burger King showed off their ugly burger, decaying through 34 days.

The Moldy Whopper by Burger King – Campaigns of the World®

The “Moldy Whopper” campaign only shows how the burger gets moldy over a month. The Whopper, topped with onions, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and pickles, appear at the center of the advertisements. The Whopper, containing no artificial preservatives, paradoxically demonstrates how fresh and healthy their food is.

To promote their promise of no preservatives, Burger King proclaimed their menu — including sandwiches, sides and desserts — will be free from artificial colors, artificial flavors and artificial preservatives in the U.S. and select European countries by the end of this year.

The Drum

McDonalds, brand-less branding

January, this year, McDonald went bold with its billboard advertisement. Instead of images of fancy burger, their beloved menu — including the Filet-O-Fish, Big Mac, and Sausage McMuffin — were introduced with a short list of its ingredients on the big screen. The color was also matched to each ingredient. McDonald’s campaign let the ingredients do the talking.

Plus, they removed their logo. This minimalist design is drafted by David Schwen from the advertising agency Leo Burnett London contain only the contents of the McDonalds menus.

By taking this brand-less approach, they made their ads incredibly simple but distinguishing. Unlike tons of branded content that talks too loud, McDonalds went less.

These ad campaigns of two burger kingdom conveys the minimalist trends. The idea of less can be found anywhere — from our lifestyles to branding. “Stay simple, stay healthy.” More and more beauty, vegan, or the other health-related brands are now adapting the idea of less. Get rid of redundant supplements. Sometimes, less works more.