McDonald’s reveals Playland – its biggest ad yet
McDonald’s will later today air its new ad “Playland” , which it describes as the company’s “biggest brand TV commercial in Australia to date”.
As Mumbrella reported at the time, the ad was filmed outside Sydney’s Customs House back in March.
It features Sydney office workers discovering the largest McDonald’s Playland ever constructed while on their daily commute to work.
A great idea.
But how could it take 6 months to cut this together?
Great idea, great installation, average tvc.
really nice idea – taps into a sense of playing around, most adults miss. Will drive good brand reappraisal
Great ad. Well done.
Good idea. Poor production value, lacks story arc (it was be the same as a 15) and please…. biggest ad yet? errrr…. James Dean walking down Broadway for a Big Mac was smaller?! notttt. Sorry David Deneen.
great idea – great timing – who doesn’t want to reinvent their inner child in spring
Ummm, what’s its point?
I’m not going to go to Maccas to play on their play equipment after work or during my lunch break, mainly because I wouldn’t fit. Who are they trying to appeal to? Only Mums and Dads?
Nice work Matt and co. brings a smile and a laugh. Great feel good stuff.
I can’t honestly say I’m craving a Big Mac after watching this, but it definitely brought on a smile.
It’s nice to think that the corporate workforce could take some time out to truly enjoy themselves in such a way.
This is the James Dean ad anonymous 5 mentions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cuNvPNmPSg , by the late, great Paul Jones.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Did anyone pee in the sandbox 🙂 ?
Cute but i know people who tried to explore the playground and it was strictly off limits to the public. The people in the ad must be actors. Grumpy McDonalds DDB production staff.
i’m lovin’ it
If they’re actors, why couldn’t they have used a more endearing main character?
I think they should take this on a roadshow – one month in every state – or leave it somewhere as a tourist attraction near a McDonalds. That would be worth a road trip for me!
This would have cost a bit – leverage it!
Agree with Hank.
really nothing special. let the people talk it up guys, you don’t need to do that yourself. Its far from the biggest brand ad Maccas have done for a while but thankfully its better than anything else that has come form DDB. How long do you think it will take before anyone realises that the song that has been used was the theme song for sizzler for several years. oh… whooops!
Pur-lease. Obviously faked up… hopelessly unconvincing mock-reality world populated by actors.
Noticeable absence of an oversized syringe… Probably a good call methinks.
This ad is brilliant. I ate McDonalds alot as a child and teen, but stopped completely around age 21.
In 16 years, nothing has made me want to step into a McDonalds, but this ad, *almost* made me get on the tram and visit one yesterday. It very cleverly captures Gen X, who may have ‘banned’ eating McDonalds in the 90’s and carried it on into their 30’s-40’s.
I saw the installation on my way in to work. It’s a shame that chose to employ actors. I think it would be more authentic if they left it there for a week and filmed the reactions of real working class people, then spread the ad virally.
DD-BOOM
Oh come on. This is the biggest cheese-ball piece of crap I’ve seen.
Kind of reminds me of a rolled gold disaster.
Does nothing for the brand. Inner child was much better.
Please pay your invoice, it’s been 6 months.
This is nice guys, why the hate?
Pity the colour looks so flat but it’s a feel good spot.
average. remember inner child that was a fantastic. this ad is poorly shot and uneventful
The acting is painful to watch.
And a playground is or was in most food chains a few years ago so its hardly something that is unique to McDonald’s. Only thing remotely Mc.D about it was the Hamburgalar shot at the start of the 30second TVC and the oversized Ronald.
Meh!
Shame it wasn’t real – but can you imagine the crowd control and OH&S issues if it were real? Not to mention that the people on it wouldn’t be anywhere nearly as useful for the image they wanted.
Totally agree with @Penny (#18 above).
A hard act to swallow…
Really? This is a terrible piece of faux brand experience marketing, shot and turned into a terrible TV ad. I dislike it all – the actors posing as real people gleefully messing up their corporate attire, the lack of original strategic insight (ooooo….we all want to be young again! Genius!), the rubbish childrens choir. Ergh. I’d love to see how many people actually took their shoes off and got involved, unprompted.
oh wait, it would seem they didn’t even allow this. So it’s completely faked brand experience. nice.
Aren’t you a grumpy boring sod Dan?! I know it’s Monday but hopefully you let your hair down a bit on the weekend. Why wouldn’t you get in there and play?
I would have loved to get in there to play but they wouldn’t let punters in.
Big yawn
Should have been called McDonald’s PlayBland
I thought it was great. Love the tune!
Where did it go after they finished filming? I wanna play!
My favourite part was the brightly lit City Extra sign at 0:15 – I don’t think there’d be a McDonalds ad anywhere in the world mentioning a competing hamburger restaurant!
what an absolutely fabulous fun fantastic amazing ad! can they bring one to Geelong or Melbourne? I’ll be first onto it! Why don’t they just have real playgrounds like that for adults?