McDonald’s Celebrates Young Adults Making It Their Own

McDonald’s and Leo Burnett UK have collaborated with 16-24 year-olds to create a campaign that celebrates the brand’s authentic role in British youth culture. It showcases the unique way young adults have naturally taken ownership of the brand and celebrates the many ways they have made an invite to McDonald’s all their own.

As well as working with an ongoing collaborative panel of 16-24 year-olds, McDonald’s has been connecting with youth workers and youth projects across the country to provide access to welcoming and safe spaces. The key finding: young adults from across the nation see McDonald’s as one of the only public places they can really take ownership of. 

The resulting campaign shows no food, no restaurants, and never even mentions McDonald’s by name, instead focusing on the insight that young adults own the invite to McDonald’s by creating their own personal nicknames for the brand. The work spans TV, OOH and social executions.

The 60” hero film, directed by Iconoclast, shows a chain reaction of young adults across the country inviting each other to McDonald’s. Each young adult uses their moniker for the brand, ranging from ‘Maccers’ to ‘McDizzles’, to nicknames signed in British Sign Language.

McDonald’s and Leo Burnett also invited young adults to take ownership of other brand elements across social channels. They’ve co-authored with the audience, through Street Interview style BTS content, where young cast members express how they take ownership over the brand. Alongside this, McDonald’s have released a set of stickers, so young adults can customise their own invites to McDonald’s and send them onto their friends.

The OOH campaign will bring the nicknames for McDonald’s to life in a fresh evolution of the brand’s visual identity, across outdoor sites between the hours of 4-6pm.

Leo Burnett partnered with youth empowerment network We Rise Limited, organising workshops which enabled 14 young adults to co-create all aspects of the campaign. To ensure the campaign would resonate authentically with young adult audiences across the UK, Leo Burnett conducted community research with The Diversity Standards Collective.

Media was planned and bought by OMD UK, and PR was managed by Red Consultancy.

Matt Reischauer, marketing director, McDonald’s said, “When the team first presented this idea I was filled with joy, because it’s not always easy to be young. This is especially true today, with an increased lack of provisions and spaces for our young people. This campaign celebrates their wit, charm, and sometimes awkward realities and we are frankly honoured to be a place they choose to spend time together, where they can be themselves.”

Andrew Long and James Millers, executive creative directors, Leo Burnett UK, said, “Whether it’s Maccers, McD’s or even McDizzles, young adults all have their own slang for McDonald’s. This latest campaign celebrates that fan truth in a truly populist way, that we’ve co-created with our audience every step of the process.”