1. McDonald ' s Launches New Ads,
Hoping to Tap Well of Goodwill
By Yumiko Ono and Richard Gibson
10/02/1997
The Wall Street Journal
Page B8
(Copyright (c) 1997, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
McDonald ' s invented the Happy Meal for kids. Now here comes an ad that might be called the Frantic Meal for
adults.
Today the Oak Brook, Ill., company unveils a new ad campaign, its first since Omnicom Group's DDB Needham
Worldwide regained lead-agency status from longtime incumbent Leo Burnett in July. Striving to rekindle sagging
sales, McDonald ' s is targeting, among other groups, the "superheavy user" -- people between 18 and 34 years old
who eat at fast-food restaurants at least 10 times a month, including three or four meals at McDonald ' s .
Lest anyone doubt that we all harbor love for McDonald ' s in our hearts, one ad shows an outpouring of fast-food
cravings among grown-ups. The television commercial shows business-suit-clad people nearly running over each
other as they try to relay orders to a colleague who happens to mention that he is going to McDonald ' s . Plastered
on an office window across the street is a big sign requesting "25 Big Macs and fries!"
It is unclear if such ads will inspire America's fickle fast-food diners to charge back to McDonald ' s , whose 1996
market share slipped to 41.9% while Burger King's rose to 19.2%. according to Technomic Inc. in Chicago. But
McDonald ' s , estimated to spend more than $500 million a year on advertising, is clearly hoping to tap a deep well
of goodwill.
The slightest mention of McDonald ' s "brings out the child in all of us," says Brad Ball, senior vice president of
marketing at McDonald ' s U.S. operation. "The nub of the gist of the idea," he says in mock advertising-agency
lingo, is to unleash the "inordinate reservoir of positive experience" that American consumers actually have had at
McDonald ' s .
Both the idea and the execution are very close to the ones used in the recent winning pitch by DDB Needham,
whose chairman and chief executive officer, Keith Reinhard, became legendary on Madison Avenue for a 15-year-
obsession with winning back the McDonald ' s account, leading to July's recapture of lead-agency status from Leo
Burnett.
The new tagline, "Did Somebody Say McDonald ' s ?," will evict the short-lived "My McDonald ' s " from Leo
Burnett, whose ads sought to reverse years of aggressive, price-driven advertising with warm-and-fuzzy ads
showing McDonald ' s customers and employees talking about their individual experiences at McDonald ' s .
Several franchisees around the country said they hadn't yet seen the new ads. One in upstate New York who saw
"rough" versions said: "They're going to be real positive. . . . We'll give DDB Needham a chance and see how it
goes." But a West Coast franchisee said the campaign "rides on nostalgia, and when you go out to eat, you want
delivery." Joe Casper, a multistore operator in Tampa, Fla., isn't expecting a big impact on store traffic: "In today's
marketplace, unless you're advertising value, [the sales pace] isn't going to move."
Although analyst Jeffrey Omohundro of Wheat First Butcher Singer hasn't seen the new spots, he likes the feel-good
mood they seek to create by playing on familiar McDonald ' s themes such as friendliness and convenience. But the
ads are "just the first step in a brand rebuilding effort," he says. "To drive sales, they'll need to get more food-
specific."
McDonald ' s U.S. same-store sales have been falling for more than a year as Grand Metropolitan's Burger King and
also Wendy's International stole market share with novel products and memorable advertising. Internal McDonald '
s research also showed that many consumers favored the other companies' hamburgers in taste tests. McDonald ' s
second-quarter U.S. operating income fell 2%.
McDonald ' s probably hopes the new ads will help people forget a campaign earlier this year that sought to sell
sandwiches for 55 cents. The campaign confused consumers, angered franchisees and got killed within weeks. In the
aftermath, the company shook up its U.S. hierarchy and accelerated new-product development work. Among recent
promotional items are sandwiches resembling Burger King's Whopper.
In the fast-food industry today, too many restaurants are chasing too few stomachs, and each chain is struggling to
break out of the pack. It doesn't help that in a booming economy, more and more customers are gravitating to so-
called casual-dining restaurants.
The new McDonald ' s ads are expected to run during programs such as Fox's baseball divisional playoffs and
NBC's "Friends" and "ER." One of the ads shows a morning commuter fantasizing about an Egg McMuffin and
persuading a bus driver to stop at McDonald ' s . McDonald ' s will also run additional ads aimed at the African-
2. American audience, created by Burrell Communications. One of them shows a couple whispering about McDonald '
s in a movie theater. Ads aimed at the Hispanic audience are created by DRM Advertising.
Meanwhile, Burnett, which currently handles McDonald ' s kids ads, including those starring Ronald McDonald, is
beefing up its own burger team. The Chicago agency said it has named Mark Wilmot, a former group account
director at MacManus Group's D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles, as an account director on the U.S. McDonald ' s
business. Burnett said it hired the 39-year-old Mr. Wilmot two months ago for his experience in working with such
accounts as Mattel.
![McDonald ' s Launches New Ads,
Hoping to Tap Well of Goodwill
By Yumiko Ono and Richard Gibson
10/02/1997
The Wall Street Journal
Page B8
(Copyright (c) 1997, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
McDonald ' s invented the Happy Meal for kids. Now here comes an ad that might be called the Frantic Meal for
adults.
Today the Oak Brook, Ill., company unveils a new ad campaign, its first since Omnicom Group's DDB Needham
Worldwide regained lead-agency status from longtime incumbent Leo Burnett in July. Striving to rekindle sagging
sales, McDonald ' s is targeting, among other groups, the "superheavy user" -- people between 18 and 34 years old
who eat at fast-food restaurants at least 10 times a month, including three or four meals at McDonald ' s .
Lest anyone doubt that we all harbor love for McDonald ' s in our hearts, one ad shows an outpouring of fast-food
cravings among grown-ups. The television commercial shows business-suit-clad people nearly running over each
other as they try to relay orders to a colleague who happens to mention that he is going to McDonald ' s . Plastered
on an office window across the street is a big sign requesting "25 Big Macs and fries!"
It is unclear if such ads will inspire America's fickle fast-food diners to charge back to McDonald ' s , whose 1996
market share slipped to 41.9% while Burger King's rose to 19.2%. according to Technomic Inc. in Chicago. But
McDonald ' s , estimated to spend more than $500 million a year on advertising, is clearly hoping to tap a deep well
of goodwill.
The slightest mention of McDonald ' s "brings out the child in all of us," says Brad Ball, senior vice president of
marketing at McDonald ' s U.S. operation. "The nub of the gist of the idea," he says in mock advertising-agency
lingo, is to unleash the "inordinate reservoir of positive experience" that American consumers actually have had at
McDonald ' s .
Both the idea and the execution are very close to the ones used in the recent winning pitch by DDB Needham,
whose chairman and chief executive officer, Keith Reinhard, became legendary on Madison Avenue for a 15-year-
obsession with winning back the McDonald ' s account, leading to July's recapture of lead-agency status from Leo
Burnett.
The new tagline, "Did Somebody Say McDonald ' s ?," will evict the short-lived "My McDonald ' s " from Leo
Burnett, whose ads sought to reverse years of aggressive, price-driven advertising with warm-and-fuzzy ads
showing McDonald ' s customers and employees talking about their individual experiences at McDonald ' s .
Several franchisees around the country said they hadn't yet seen the new ads. One in upstate New York who saw
"rough" versions said: "They're going to be real positive. . . . We'll give DDB Needham a chance and see how it
goes." But a West Coast franchisee said the campaign "rides on nostalgia, and when you go out to eat, you want
delivery." Joe Casper, a multistore operator in Tampa, Fla., isn't expecting a big impact on store traffic: "In today's
marketplace, unless you're advertising value, [the sales pace] isn't going to move."
Although analyst Jeffrey Omohundro of Wheat First Butcher Singer hasn't seen the new spots, he likes the feel-good
mood they seek to create by playing on familiar McDonald ' s themes such as friendliness and convenience. But the
ads are "just the first step in a brand rebuilding effort," he says. "To drive sales, they'll need to get more food-
specific."
McDonald ' s U.S. same-store sales have been falling for more than a year as Grand Metropolitan's Burger King and
also Wendy's International stole market share with novel products and memorable advertising. Internal McDonald '
s research also showed that many consumers favored the other companies' hamburgers in taste tests. McDonald ' s
second-quarter U.S. operating income fell 2%.
McDonald ' s probably hopes the new ads will help people forget a campaign earlier this year that sought to sell
sandwiches for 55 cents. The campaign confused consumers, angered franchisees and got killed within weeks. In the
aftermath, the company shook up its U.S. hierarchy and accelerated new-product development work. Among recent
promotional items are sandwiches resembling Burger King's Whopper.
In the fast-food industry today, too many restaurants are chasing too few stomachs, and each chain is struggling to
break out of the pack. It doesn't help that in a booming economy, more and more customers are gravitating to so-
called casual-dining restaurants.
The new McDonald ' s ads are expected to run during programs such as Fox's baseball divisional playoffs and
NBC's "Friends" and "ER." One of the ads shows a morning commuter fantasizing about an Egg McMuffin and
persuading a bus driver to stop at McDonald ' s . McDonald ' s will also run additional ads aimed at the African-](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mcdonaldslaunchesnewads-130219195344-phpapp02/85/mc-donaldslaunchesnewads-1-320.jpg)
