Leo Burnett Tasked with Rebranding McDonald’s

By Patrick Coffee 

MacDo

A couple of weeks ago we posted on the McDonald’s team’s internal declaration that the company had 18 months to rebrand…or else.

Today — despite both parties’ refusal to offer official comment — someone “close to the matter” who neglected to contact us told AdAge that the responsible party will be Leo Burnett.

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The story is vague, but the only thing you really need to know is that McD’s current primary creative DDB and its go-to Happy Meal team at Burnett competed to see who would produce a “significant” campaign that will arrive either later this year or early next year. Burnett (allegedly) won the ensuing Publicis/Omnicom head-to-head.

DDB will retain the account, but this move marks a “boon” for Burnett. The campaign will not stray too far from the “I’m lovin’ it” theme, but based on all we’ve heard we can be fairly certain that the coming work will attempt to focus on the quality of the food on offer under the golden arches.

Given McD’s declining sales and ongoing perception challenges, this will be a tall order.

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