Over the years, fast-food giant McDonald's has faced some pretty disturbing questions with regards the ingredients that go into its meals. In recent years sales have been slumping and consumers have been questioning what the chain has been feeding them. Therefore, in an attempt to put consumers concerns aside McDonald's USA decided to throw its doors open to the public by enlisted “MythBusters” co-host Grant Imahara to counter the skepticism which consumers had regarding the quality of McDonald’s food. The professional skeptic Imahara headed a campaign called “Our food. Your questions” whereby it begins with TV spots showing real people’s questions and an invitation to consumers to pose questions via social media. Imahara is featured in a series of Webisodes videos addressing consumers’ persistent doubts and questions. McDonald's is answering the tough questions and they're not going to stop until the world stops believing they don't use real meat in their beef patties and chicken nuggets.
As was mentioned in chapter 9 several guidelines that can be utilized to evaluate the creative output. The first being whether or not the creative approach is consistence with the brand marketing and advertising objectives. Moreover, McDonalds brand marketing mission, as stated on their website, “Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which center on an exceptional customer experience People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion. We are committed to continuously improving our operations and enhancing our customers' experience”, which seems that the campaign is aligned with the brand’s marketing strategy, which is centered on the costumers’ expectations by answering their questions and addressing their concerns. The second guideline is whether creative approach is consistent with the creative strategy and objectives. In this regard, McDonald’s main concern is to communicant with their consumers what ingredients go into their food and I believe McDonald’s was success in doing so. By visiting McDonald’s beef supplier, Imahara’s first webisodes clearly shows what goes into the chain’s burger patties. Just beef. No “pink slime.” The flash freezing of those patties is explained and defended as a way to retain rather than lose flavor. “Ask your questions and I’ll find out the answers,” Imahara says at the episodes’ close. Furthermore, he promised that he would visit other McDonald’s suppliers to answer questions about McNuggets, McRib and other food product. As for the third guideline, namely, whether the creative approach best suite the target audience, I believe this has been well established as the primarily target group for McDonald’s is teenagers and young adults this campaign has sufficiently focused on addressing their concerns regarding what ingredients goes into their meals. Nowadays more and more young people are watching what they eat and are concerned about the nutritional facts of their meals. Many are switching to healthier options such as subway or better tasting alternatives such as Chipotle. For this reason, I believe, designing such a campaign is consistent with the chain’s target market. Furthermore, this campaign will work on getting back their costumers be letting them be engaged in the process of knowing what is really in their food and where it comes from. Kevin Newell, EVP-chief brand and strategy officer for McDonald’s USA, in an exclusive interview was quoted to have said “We know some people both McDonald’s fans and skeptics—continue to have questions about our food from the standpoint of the ingredients or how food is prepared at the restaurant. This is our move to ensure we engage people in a two-way dialogue about our food and answer the questions and address their comments,” “ The work we’ve done in the past has been one-way. We’ve made nutrition information about our food available for a
