The McDonald's Big Mac finally achieves celebrity status in ingenious ad

McDonald’s' Big Mac is one of the world's best known and most iconic fast-food products. It's so iconic it has its own museum (at a McDonald's in North Huntingdon) and it's even used to measure currencies' purchasing power via the Economist's annual Big Mac Index.

Now, more than half a century after its creation, the world's most famous burger has achieved true celebrity status. It has an autograph. And the project is another example of the creativity of McDonald's marketing campaigns.

Some 256,000 people responded to a call put out by McDonald's in Sweden to take part in a collaborative project to design a signature for the Big Mac. People sent in their suggested scribbles for the chance to get a free burger.

The branding agency Nord DDB had the contributions vectorised, and then processed them using Dynamic Time Warp AI algorithms to generate a single signature based on an average of all of the contributions. A robot with a 3D-printed hand was then employed to physically put pen to paper on behalf of the Big Mac.

Susanne Wahlberg, brand manager at McDonald’s Sweden, said of the project: “It’s fun that so many fans came together to create an autograph for their favorite burger. It turned out great and I think it will be much appreciated by Big Mac connoisseurs in Sweden and the rest of the world.”

Nord DDB creative director Petter Dixelius added: “Normally, it is the fans who ask the star for an autograph. As this star is a burger, we must do the opposite. It feels like a given that Big Mac finally has its own autograph and that it is based on the fans’ own handwriting.”

McDonald's itself already has a remarkable brand signature in its golden arches logo, now forever linked to eyebrows. I'm not sure the new Big Mac signature will see wide use as a global brand asset or will end up being something of a gimmick, you have to hand it to the brand for keeping the creative campaigns coming.