Introducing the boy who dreams of working at McDonald’s
McDonald’s has launched a new ad designed to showcase the improving quality of its McCafe coffee.
The ad – by Leo Burnett – features a young boy playing at making coffee at a teddy bear’s tea party, before showing him grown up as a McDonald’s barista.
The ad is the latest in the quick service restaurant’s push to change perceptions about its coffee. Two years ago, it ran ads acknowledging that it previously was not good enough.
Leo Burnett and DDB are both on the McDonald’s roster, although of late, most campaign work has come from the DDB stable.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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“When I grow up, I want……a McJob?”
Australia might be down in the dumps right now, but this plummets to a new, tragic low-point of depressing, non-aspiration.
What have we become?
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Dream big.
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That’s some sick shit.
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Up next: the boy who plays at being a life-saving doctor grows up to gut chickens for KFC.
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Ahh… anonymous blog commenters talking about creative work that’s not their own. (And, no, before someone assumes the obvious, I don’t have anything to do with Macca’s or any of their agencies.)
I like it – it’s clearly building up their credentials in coffee.
We all just forget in adland that perhaps they’re looking not to steal share or occasions from our fancy Melbourne/Sydney $4 flat white hipster coffee joints, but away from someone like Nescafe.
McFlat White costs about $4, too.
And it’s full of that “International Roast” flavour.
Cheaper/better coffee at those Sydney hipster coffee joints.
Back to Gloria Jean’s/Starbucks/The Coffee Club for you, Pascoe!
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Any kid who dreams of working at McDonalds needs help with their value system
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Some of you are missing the point….he doesn’t dream of working at McDonalds, he dreams of being a Barista.
The point being that McDonalds coffee/McCafe is good enough to attract Baristas who are seriously into coffee
The use of the naked group handle at the end is a nice touch too….though I doubt they actually use them
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Terrific spot for a product that has traditionally been a tough sell.
It leaves me with two clear messages:
1. Maccas has baristas (the ‘new’ news)
2. The coffee looks good
All we can do as advertisers is to get people trying (or in this case reassessing) the product. Based on this, job well done.
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Looks like a yet another good reason to keep your kids away from Macca’s, if this is the result.
Nick, are you going to be on hand to explain this to the consumer’s too? If it needs explanation it’s a fail.
Oh and have we forgotten that coffee is a drug? Using kids to market it, just isn’t right. Imagine if this were any other caffeinated drink.
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pretty good ad i thought.
in 20 years when everything in advertising and media is automated, many of us will be hoping we can get jobs at McDonalds.
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I wasn’t planning on it Meh. No-one needed to explain it to me so what makes you think consumers will need it explained to them?
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Reminds me of this great video from a few years ago – ‘When I Grow Up I Wanna Work in Advertising’ >>>>>> – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaoIsPZAgck
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Parents that name there kids Groucho, probs work at Maccas..
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@Groucho 2 parents who have kids who spell the possessive ‘there’ instead of ‘their’ probably need to re-educate them too (or is that to, what do you think Groucho 2?)
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I just think the ad is cute & funny. Goes to show he thinks outside the square! love the accent on the little kid haha …
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I love this ad. It’s childhood innocence at its best. Will it make me buy a latte at McDs? Probably not, but I get a warm fuzzy laugh every time I see it. I even rewind sometimes to watch it twice. Crazy I know!?!
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Wow ok there’s a lot of bitter peeps out there huh? I actually googled this commercial to show a few friends because the kids delivery of the latte line makes me laugh EVERY TIME. I work in the media but on the radio side of things not agency and whilst I would NEVER consider a McCafe coffee, on first viewing of this ad on TV I actually thought ‘wow finally some Maccas advertising that has a cute sense of humour and is appealing even to someone who never walks into one of their stores’. I couldn’t give a toss about the ‘as if’ aspect of a toddler dreaming of being a Maccas ‘barista’ and I think most of those poo pooing clearly have there heads jammed deep inside their pelvic purses….no wonder dealing with agencies is a nightmare they truly are out of touch with the audience they are trying to sell to if the ONLY thing they get out of this clever commercial is the lack of plausibility in a kids play acting leading to a career at McDonald’s. Anyway that’s my thoughts.
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