Ad of the Week: Big Mac on the Mind - HenkinSchultz Skip to main content

Ad of the Week: Big Mac on the Mind

By February 21, 2014April 13th, 2023Ad of the Week, Advertising, Commercials

McDonald’s is messing with our heads a bit in this creative, British campaign that features prankvertising and some attention to detail (or lack thereof). Basically what’s happening here is that McDonald’s is trying to tell us that people can’t concentrate on anything else when the Big Mac is in close proximity. Unlike the recent trend of daring ad stunts, and the million-calorie sandwich itself, the prank element here is pretty benign and quite effective.

A couple on the street asks for a pair of different, unsuspecting folks to take a photo of them. As they prepare for the photo to be taken, an enormous portrait of a Big Mac is carried past by a different couple, who quickly switch places with the original pair just as the photo is about to be snapped. The two people who take the photos don’t seem to notice that anything’s amiss. So sneaky.

The original couple from the spot also host a series of interactive “mind games” designed to demonstrate the Big Mac’s magical distracting power. Apparently McDonald’s wanted to remind us of the mystical, hypnotic tendencies of two oversized beef patties on a grease-soaked sesame seed bun. Needless to say, when one shows up that huge and juicy, one simply cannot look away! Of course when ol’ Ronald showed us how McNuggets were really made, I couldn’t look away fast enough!