McDonald’s Newest Campaign Takes a Page Out of Reality TV’s Playbook—and Features a ‘Love Island’ Star |
McDonald’s Newest Campaign Takes a Page Out of Reality TV’s Playbook—and Features a ‘Love Island’ Star
The fast food chain is asking customers to serve up first job confessions.
BY ANNABEL BURBA, EDITORIAL ASSISTANT @ANNIEBURBA
Olandria Carthen. Photo: McDonald’s
Did you know that one in every eight Americans has worked at McDonald’s at some point in their life, according to the fast food giant? That’s a fact that inspired its latest marketing campaign, the “First Job Confessional”—with an added reality TV-inspired twist.
Over the next few months, the burger maker will bring a reality TV-style confessional booth to several U.S. cities. McDonald’s won’t encourage customers to use the booth, which looks like one of its ordering kiosks, to air personal grievances or get emotional, as many TV producers do. Instead, the chain is asking them to share their first job story. In exchange, customers will get the chance to win a $15 gift card.
McDonald’s partnered with Love Island star Olandria Carthen for the campaign.
“Before I was on TV, I was just a small-town girl from ‘bama,” she said, according to a press release by McDonald’s. “My mom and sister worked at McDonald’s and showed me that our first jobs teach us skills we carry for life. That really hit home in my first job as a babysitter, where I learned to multitask, communicate, and be responsible for more than just myself.”
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The confessional booth launched in New York last weekend. It will go on the road in mid-March, appearing in Austin, Pittsburgh, and Chicago throughout the spring and summer.
This campaign seems to function as both an in-person pop-up and a social media marketing play for McDonald’s, since customers can also submit their confessional videos online. The move comes just days after Chris Kempczinski, the burger maker’s CEO, went viral for awkwardly taste-testing his company’s new Big Arch burger.
Burger King, Wendy’s, A&W, Jack in the Box, White Castle, KFC, and Smashburger then jumped on the trend by posting videos of their own bigwigs trying out products—with varying degrees of success.
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