Leo Burnett Chicago Helps McDonald’s Introduce ‘A Better Chicken McNugget’

By Erik Oster 

With the review of McDonald’s creative account reportedly stretching out to the end of the summer, Leo Burnett Chicago launched a campaign promoting the fast food giant’s decision to remove all artificial preservatives from its Chicken McNuggets.

In the 60-second spot “A Better Chicken McNugget,” set to a cover of Cyndi Lauper‘s “Time After Time,” two fans of the popular menu item interact across a split screen. The boy on the left side of the screen appears to be growing up at some point in the 80s, the girl on the right the present day. Over the course of the ad, the boy shares some of his favorite things with the girl, and as he passes each item to her side of the screen, it evolves, including a bike, a video game controller and, at the spot’s conclusion, a Chicken McNugget. The spot ends with the tagline “The simpler the better.”

The spot also ends with the touching revelation that the boy is the girl’s father, passing on his love of basketball, video games, bicycling and chicken nuggets to his daughter. “A Better Chicken McNugget” utilizes nostalgia to remind its viewers of their own positive childhood memories of the brand while attempting to convince parents who may have shied away from the chain due to concerns over its ingredients that it’s something they can feel good about sharing with their children.

That’s a pretty good formula to try to win back such customers, and it might just help Leo Burnett Chicago convince McDonald’s to stay with the agency as well.

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In addition to the broadcast spot, the campaign also includes a full-page print ad which ran in The New York Times and the Washington Post yesterday. That ad addressed some of the changes the chain has made to its menu (its pork sausage patties are now free of artificial preservatives).

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