Continuing its efforts to be viewed as a caring corporate citizen, McDonald’s released another heartwarming commercial—this time during the Super Bowl.
“Pay with Lovin’” shows random McD’s customers ready to purchase their food when a cashier asks them to perform various tasks in lieu of payment. For a few customers, payment means calling mom to say “I love you.” Others need to dance, hug, or say nice things about family members. If they “pay with lovin’” their food is free. The promotion is set to run until Valentine’s Day.
Feel Good People Stories
Coming on the heels of “Signs,” McDonald’s local feel good commercial released a few weeks ago, Pay with Lovin’ continues the restaurant’s focus on humans rather than food. It encourages connectivity among customers and, by extension, to McDonald’s who facilitated the connection. It does more tugging at emotions than actual sellin
Pay with Lovin’ another example of storymaking in the vein of Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign. The idea is to create situations in which customers create their own meaningful stories, which they then spread through word of mouth.
Is it working?
Feedback on this campaign is about as mixed as the Signs campaign. While some of the Lovin’ encounters were tear jerking and heartwarming, others were stiff and awkward (clearly, strawberry sundae guy didn’t really want to raise roof). But even the awkward moments lend an air of authenticity to the whole thing. And it’s hard to argue with a campaign centered around love and positive vibes, not to mention free food. As of writing this post, the chain has given away nearly 1 million free orders.
Collectively McDonald’s new commercials are an attempt to halt declining sales and improve public perception of the brand that’s still under scrutiny for low wages and questionable ingredients. Even if it’s not working, they’re getting a ton of social media mileage out of these attempts. Search #paywithlovin on Twitter or take a gander at http://mcdonalds.tumblr.com/ to see just how much traction you might get out a clever feel good campaign.
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