When you think food advertising can’t get any better than it is now, someone finds a way to one-up the competition. It does raise the question of whether there is a point in advertising a thing we can’t live without, but I digress.
McDonald’s has come out with an advert—a street billboard—in the streets of Paris that has been drawing people’s attention lately with its unconventional public ad design.
Have you ever gotten so hungry that you've had the idea to take a bite out of a billboard?
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
So, McDonald’s—you know, that ginormous fast-food chain whose food people can’t help but crave every once in a while and effectively don’t need to be persuaded to want to eat it—has come out with an ingenious billboard design that has people captivated.
McDonald’s has placed 3 lit street billboards around the city of Paris, France with pictures of two kinds of their signature hamburgers and a carton of french fries. Except they aren’t regular rectangular billboards that many of us are used to, but rather rectangles that someone has taken a literal bite out of.
An ad agency recently took that concept and made it into a McDonnald's billboard that is literally bitten off
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
The entire design does have a silly vibe to it because the bite mark is just comically out there—who would try to take an over-sized bite out of a billboard picturing food? But, at the same time, it’s very on-point and the strangeness of it all manages to draw the eyes of passersby—exactly what an ad should be doing.
People with a keen eye will also notice that the billboards lack any branding. Besides the carton of french fries being packaged in the obvious red and yellow packaging that McDonald’s offers, there is no mention of it being McDonald’s. For all intents and purposes, this could be an ad for any other fast-food restaurant.
3 "bitten-off" billboards were placed in Paris, France that feature McD's juicy pics of burgers and fries
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
But a supplementary video showcasing these same billboards clarifies that it is indeed McDonald’s—the classic golden arches appear right after the cartoony frames of the two burgers and french fry logos at the end of the video.
The people behind the billboards are TBWA\Paris, an advertising agency headquartered in New York City but with a presence all around the world, including Paris. It aims to bring a culture of innovation and to put companies’ brands at the heart of pop culture.
TBWA Paris is the team behind the billboards and they've been working with McDonald's since 1985
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
The agency has been working together with McDonald’s in Paris for a while now—since 1985, actually. Their projects with McD’s include ad campaigns for the Sharing Box, “Being A Good Father,” and “American Summer,” among many others.
Now, this isn’t the first time someone has taken a bite out of a tasty food ad as Ben and Jerry’s also realized the same concept for an ad some time ago. The ad for B&J’s Pint Slices has been seen bitten off in Auckland, New Zealand. The Phantom Labs team are the people behind this one.
Interestingly enough, none of these ads feature any of McDonald's branding, save for its colors with the fries
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
Image credits: TBWA PARIS
Watch the video advert showcasing the bitten-off McDonald's billboards found in Paris
Video credits: TBWA PARIS
So, what are your thoughts on this? Do you like McDonald’s, or do you prefer other burger joints? Let us know in the comment section below!