You probably didn’t see these McDonald’s ads since they ran in Australia during the later part of 2012. At face value, they seem like pretty smart ads considering the fast food giant’s reputation for unhealthy, obesity causing foods.
The basic message says, “Hey, our food comes from the same place as your food.” McDonald’s is subtlety addressing the quality of its foods by talking about the source and not the food itself. That’s an important distinction.
Let me explain.
The brand team at McDonald’s knows that consumers consider McDonald’s food to be unsafe unhealthy. Report after report documents the harmful effects on health. So the brand team decides to run an ad campaign showing that McDonald’s isn’t that bad.
The problem? The food really is unhealthy.
So what do you do? You find the angle or position that you can truthfully advertise but that still sounds convincing. In other words, you talk about the source of the food and not what’s done to the food after it’s collected or harvested.
They were probably hoping that most consumers wouldn’t catch the difference.
Ignoring for a moment issues such as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or animal rights, I’m not that worried about the source of the food. I’m worried about what’s been injected in the food once it starts done the path to becoming a burger or fries (i.e. fillers and preservatives).
The ad gets the key consumer insight all wrong. We are more worried about what happens to the food than where it comes from.
Sorry McDonald’s but your food is not the same as mine.