McDonald's ad campaign banks on a new payment method: love

In an effort to rebrand itself, McDonald's new advertising campaign "Choose Lovin' " now includes an option to pay for meals with acts of kindness.

|
Brendan McDermid/Reuters

During the Super Bowl, McDonald's introduced the next step of its “Choose Lovin’” campaign. The fast-food chain will be selecting 100 customers per store and giving them the opportunity to pay for their meal with acts of love.

From Feb. 2 to Feb. 14, between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., an estimated 1 million randomly selected McDonalds customers can opt to pay for their meal by doing such things as calling their mom to tell her they love her, doing a little dance, or hugging a family member to spread the lovin’.

The commercial featured this form of currency with a montage of pleasantly surprised McDonalds customers “choosing love,” encouraging employees and applauding bystanders.  It sent the message that McDonalds appreciates community and family.

"We're really serious about lovin' our customers," Deborah Wahl, chief marketing officer at McDonald's USA, told USA Today. "This gives us a chance to show it."

Individual stores will be giving out 35 meals the first day, 20 the next and then less then five per day for the duration of the contest except for Feb. 7. There will be 10 per store that day, reports the Los Angeles Times

This newest commercial in the fast food chain’s “Choose Lovin’” campaign has not sparked the controversy that the first “Choose Lovin’” commercial did, which is a good thing as the company is currently attempting to improve its public image and rebrand itself.

After the first “Choose Lovin’” commercial was released, McDonald’s was criticized for capitalizing on tragedy and appealing to a sense of community when its workers are so frequently tied up in labor disputes.

The new ad campaign comes at a time when McDonald's sales are slumping. Fourth quarter revenue was down 7.3 percent overall, though less steeply in the US. The fast-food chain has struggled with customer perceptions that it's offerings are "less healthy" than other similar outlets, and growing competition from other chains such as Smash Burger, Five Guys, and Shake Shack.

McDonald's also extended its Super Bowl goodwill advertising campaign on Sunday to Twitter. During commercial breaks throughout the Super Bowl, McDonalds offered up over 50 giveaways to people who re-tweeted its tweets complimenting other advertisers.

The prizes up for grabs were tailored to each company’s product.

For example, McDonalds was giving away an XBox One and a 2015 Toyota Camry to those who re-tweeted its tweet about Microsoft and Toyota. Other giveaways were less literal. If you re-tweeted McDonald’s Doritos tweet you were in the running to win a suitcase full of Doritos and airline tickets – a nod to the winning commercial in Doritos Super Bowl ad contest.

"We want to engage in ways that are more relevant and more meaningful," Wahl told USA Today.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to McDonald's ad campaign banks on a new payment method: love
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Bite/2015/0202/McDonald-s-ad-campaign-banks-on-a-new-payment-method-love
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe