Leaving work yesterday evening, I bumped into a new advertising billboard ad for Mc Donald’s. Or was it? At first sight, before even knowing that it represented a picto of French fries, I had a feeling that it was McDonald’s. If you look at this ad carefully though, you’ll notice there is no brand, no name, no address… not many clues about what it is about.

So how come we know it’s McDonald’s?

I would guess it’s a long-run effort of image consistency, with the same codes throughout all communications from the Brand, on all channels, and for a long time. After a while, the colors, the style, the (M) logo at the bottom right (all you can find on this ad) becomes enough to evocate the Brand.

But, one can ask, what would be the goal of such an advertising?

Obviously, we’re not on drive-to-restaurant objectives, nor leading to purchase or call-center. We have to go with less rational objectives. Here are the benefits I can see:

• It serves the Brand’s popularity, associating its image with very modern, minimalist, almost art pictos. Billboard ad becomes an artistic creation (cf. first picture in a train station), and the Brand benefits from this qualitative feeling, becoming cleaner, more modern, almost pure.
• It still ensures the Brand is present and seen by customers: with as little as it displays, it actually suggests what customers like McDonald’s for the most: burger, fries… to some point, it effectively makes you want to eat a burger sometime soon. Especially convenient if billboards are located close to restaurants!
• Among all other ads, with prices, a promotional message, unrealistic actors and sales, this pure and minimalist design catches the eye, and actually stands out from the crowd of promotional messages customers are confronted to each day.

I wanted to talk about this ad as I have the feeling it represents a turn in advertising.

First, it is a good example of how important it is for a Brand to offer a consistent message and image on all communication channels.

Moreover, at a time when people receive so many communications daily, we have become able to sort messages, and ignore the most obviously commercial ones. Messages have to offer a certain quality to even hope being read or seen. Making the move from agressive ads to artistic creation makes McDonald’s stand out and builds a positive image and trust.