A global bunfight: award-winning creative director Tony Malcolm explores the past, present and future of McDonald’s and Burger King advertising as these two mega brands slog it out in the world’s fast food market.
I was involved in McDonald’s advertising on both sides of the pond as a writer, CD and ECD for well over a decade. I remember when I first was asked to be on the account in the early 2000s and thinking it was a poisoned chalice to delve into the murky world of fast food. It was also a massive opportunity to work with one of the world’s most iconic brands under the glow of the Golden Arches.
But the film called Supersize Me made the brand into the golden arch-villain, that it was the main culprit in contributing to the burgeoning obesity crisis.
I clearly remember one shoot in Uxbridge where a woman clutching a can of high-strength lager in one hand and a cigarette in the other (which begged the question, how was she pushing her child’s buggy?) asked me what commercial we were shooting.
‘Oh, it’s for Big Mac,’ I casually replied. Her expression immediately changed to one of total disdain as she reprimanded me, “You should be ashamed of yourself” before storming off in a cloud of Marlboro smoke. The whole brand had become a pariah in the UK and beyond.
Now I recall the opening of the first McDonald’s in the part of London I was born and bred in. Burgers had just been the sort you could buy at Wimpy or from stands outside football grounds and fun fairs. They would appear at barbecues when the men discovered their primeval urge to gather around flames, drink ale and cook meat.
Out of the red, white and blue, there was this thing called a Big Mac from the States, that towered above those flat, uninspired offerings. Two burgers stacked between three pieces of bread with an assortment of other ingredients.
The ad was a jingle with a roll call of its ingredients as, “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun”.
“I need to go and get my bony frame down to that McDonald’s restaurant and buy myself one of those monsters, with a full fat milkshake to wash it down with,” I mused.
Big Mac had arrived and there was nothing else quite like it. I was young at the time and it seemed huge in my diminutive hands. I remember their jingle from back then saying “There’s a difference at McDonald’s you’ll enjoy”. And I did, along with smoking and underage drinking, putting paid to my earlier promise as a talented sportsman.
I became aware of this clown called Ronald who was ensconced in scrapes with a stalker called Hamburglar trying to steal his burger from him. Ronald resolved this situation by taking him and a group of children to McDonald’s to load up on calories. How Ron hasn’t been canceled in these less innocent times, I don’t know.
Then a newcomer entered the fray. The Whopper from Burger King with a very catchy jingle loaded with innuendo saying “mine’s a Whopper, you need two hands just to hold that thing”, which found great traction in the playground as a chant. These two gladiators entered the ring like Cassius Clay and Smokin’ Joe Frazier ready to slug it out to claim the World Heavyweight Champions belt.
Meanwhile, my own belt was feeling the strain of deciding which one was superior. Suddenly, fast food was a cheap alternative that Brits embraced with open hearts and open mouths with the two titans of this new form of cuisine vying for our affections.
McDonald’s going for slow motion shots of bouncing crisp lettuce, succulent beef patties, fluffy looking buns, all lavished with mouth-watering sauce, lashings of onions and pickles sprinkled with sesame seeds over a beautifully browned dome. Whopper came back with flames licking around a huge, glistening griddle-lined patty with onions, tomatoes and lettuce spilling out of a gargantuan bun the size of two dustbin lids, claiming they’d been flame-grilled since 1954.
Great adverts started appearing making McDonald’s seem as British as fish and chips. Clever Daddy, Being Six, Birds and The Bees and A Day in The Life of McDonald’s all used emotion and humor to grow the UK’s affection for high sugar, salt and fat products.
Eye-catching posters for ice cream going for 20p used the typography of the numbers and letter to make smiley faces appear. Value ads utilizing dry British humor ran about how much work Alan Hansen had to do to afford a 99p Quarter Pounder. ‘Very very poor’ was all he needed to say to cover the cost of the burger.
Other tips on how to save money introduced us to the notion of strapping carpet tiles to our feet to replicate that luxurious carpet feel underfoot all over the house without forking out for expensive shag pile.
In 2003, the slogan “I’m lovin’ it” emerged as the global endline with the five-bar sting for McDonald’s, courtesy of Justin Timberlake. But then a film was released that was to make the world start loathin’ it.
In 2004, Supersize Me saw Morgan Spurlock, a documentary maker, go to McDonald’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner, until he made himself physically sick in the name of art and nutrition.
It put the blame for obesity firmly on the doorstep of McDonald’s and started a wave of myths and stories about what other dubious practices were involved in the sourcing and manufacture of their food items. A new digital tool called the internet helped spread these rumors like wildfire. McDonald’s had to do something radical in the UK to overcome this wave of negative publicity and be seen as the standard bearer for good and ethical practices in the UK.
Ads about the provenance and quality started appearing. McDonald’s beef was sourced from British farmers, as well as their Pentland Crown potatoes. Their chicken and eggs were free range, their cooking oil was reused as fuel for their delivery trucks. No patty was left unturned in their desire to prove their spotless credentials.
McDonald’s UK went on the front foot and refurbed their restaurants whilst updating their menu. Their core products like Big Mac, fries, chicken nuggets, quarter pounder with cheese, McFlurry, Coca-Cola and Happy Meals remained the same, but they brought in carrot sticks and fruit bags for the kids and even the McSalad. McCafé introduced artisan coffee to replace the stuff you could stand your spoon up in.
Their confidence was high and they produced their first brand ad in ten years.
Just Passing By was an ode to their core menu items that put them into everyday life from breakfast in the mornings to the late night revellers coming in to line their stomachs. David Morrissey’s dulcet tones to the theme tune to The Grifters accompanied people enjoying all sorts of menu items at all times of the day.
“There’s a McDonald’s for everyone”, Mr Morrissey announced as we saw that promise in all its glory, shot beautifully by Neil Gorringe.
Beware of pick-packets ran on the London Tube warning of unscrupulous people with their eyes on your fries. This wave of ad activity saw McDonald’s sales increase by 500% and started a series of lovely ads that planted McDonald’s products firmly into a role in everyday life, 24/7.
A brand ad for Happy Meals asked the age old question, “what is it about kids and boxes?”, showing how children’s curiosity about a six-sided container often exceeds the interest of what’s inside it.
Happy Meals underwent their own upgrade, swapping out plastic toys for e-books and more educational offerings. They became a popular carrier for new film releases, producing partnerships with studios that linked their characters with carrot sticks and fruit bags.
The French too were feeling the confidence, putting out some wonderful poster work with their products represented in flat bold colors. No logo, just iconic imagery.
They produced a character of their own called Monsieur Happy who bears an uncanny likeness to the ever-popular Minions. However, sales in the States were in quarterly decline due to more healthy options like Chipotle rising in popularity with millennials. They tried to halt decline with a film that claimed that Lovin’ beats Hatin’, which failed to move the needle and ultimately McDonald’s aligned all their marketing activity with the ‘agency of the future’ called We Are Unlimited with digital and data at its heart.
Burger King, which produces many items akin to those at McDonald’s, ran a film where the only item people from around the world knew them for, The Whopper, was said in all their diverse accents.
The horse meat scandal that threatened to scupper the Whopper’s sales, increased its popularity. Instead of putting people off, it encouraged them to give it a go. If the French eat le cheval, it can’t be all bad.
McDonald’s burgers were found to be devoid of any horse meat, but they decided not to stick the riding boot in on The Whopper, mainly because they too could’ve been caught out by a beef provider not sticking meticulously to their strict guidelines.
Whopper meanwhile didn’t stop its attack on The Big Mac. They produced an ad that showed the Whopper growing moldy over time next to a Big Mac that stayed pristine due to its use of preservatives. It won many plaudits and awards, but critics say it left a nasty taste in the mouth regarding The Whopper. What madness to show your product looking anything less than magnificent.
I think this served as a singular lesson that bold and brave don’t always equal persuasive and awards don’t always reflect what is liked by the public. We are tasked with making mouths water in food advertising, not producing imagery that makes you reach for a bucket. I have lost many a good ad due to research but in this instance, even though the message was a strong one, perhaps a straw poll or vox pop would have made Burger King think twice before going out on such a fragile limb.
Much more in line with their subterfuge and cleverness was a PR campaign revealing that whenever Burger King shot its whopping offering for an ad, they had sneakily hidden a Big Mac behind it to demonstrate its inferior size. This was gloves-off stuff that probably irked McDonald’s, but didn’t prompt them to retaliate, preferring to keep on the winning formula of showing the Big Mac looking glorious and introducing a new range with a bigger variant, and one with bacon, to celebrate it’s 50th anniversary.
To counteract claims that McDonald’s encouraged an unhealthy lifestyle, they had started introducing academies to get kids into football in the late 90s. This initiative branched into them sponsoring the Olympic Games, the Euros and the World Cup, producing some ads that placed McDonald’s into the heart of the action, without touting food that was likely to give you a heart attack. A lovely pitchside hoarding during the World Cup encouraged the England team to up their game by simply changing the McDonald’s logo to say c’Mon laDs.
In the States, this association with sport extended to a wonderful ad to promote the Brazilian World Cup with an augmented trick shots game using QR codes on french fries packets by demonstrating some amazing real life trick shots in Brazil itself.
Today, McDonald’s is keeping up to speed with modern day life. The idea of delivery, which McDonald’s had rejected for so long, has now become an essential part of their offering and great ads are appearing in the press both at home and abroad.
From the home of gastronomy, impressionistic ads appeared of cityscapes seen through rain spattered windows with the Golden Arches, prompting people to dial out for their McD’s rather than brave the elements.
In the UK, the Golden Arches were utilised to plot the route from restaurant to home, lighting up the destination in its golden glow.
In Canada, mobile phones were used to replicate fries and a stacked Big Mac to promote their mobile ordering service. The McCafé range is also hilariously represented with ads mocking the pretentiousness of coffee culture and excessive prices paid for barista-served artisan coffee. McDonald’s gives you good coffee, without the faff and none of the gimmicks.
Now with the vegan movement rising in popularity, McDonald’s is venturing into the McPlant range, and it remains to be seen what other initiatives are in the pipeline. How will Big Mac and Whopper react in this modern-day world?
Will there be a McPlant Big Mac? Will the Whopper reciprocate with a non-meat variant? Will they just continue to appeal to their loyalists with their trademark humor, like the brilliant Another Whopper on the Side of a Bus ad on a double decker outside the UK Parliament in the wake of the lies spread by (then Prime Minister) Boris Johnson to get Brexit done?
Whopper will continue to goad and irritate Big Mac even though McDonald’s will treat it like an annoying insect and try to ignore it.
Christmas is coming and, in the cost-of-living crisis, how will both brands represent their wares? Will they be doing their usual celebratory ads or go into a more penny-pinching mentality of tightening the purse strings?
How will both brands adapt to embrace future challenges and react to unforeseen threats and how it affects their tone of voice in appealing to us with their comms? The McDonald’s brand was condemned for its slow response in pulling out of Russia in protest of the invasion of Ukraine.
McDonald’s is still failing to make an impact on their carbon footprint, belching out more cubic tons globally than the whole of Norway.
Will the LGBT and human rights issues be overlooked in the name of the beautiful game?
Planners and strategists will be chewing the fat about how to tackle these and future challenges, like sustainability, whilst introducing new vegan initiatives. Because the world of fast food demands fast thinking and nimble footedness in reacting to global issues.
Tony Malcolm was previously CD of McDonald’s at Leo Burnett UK and ECD of McDonald’s at DDB Chicago. Presently freelance creative director and senior copywriter.
