WcDONALD'S

Across hundreds of anime episodes and series, McDonald’s has often been bootlegged, most commonly by flipping the arches and transforming McDonald’s into WcDonald’s.

For this campaign, instead of sending cease-and-desist letters, we celebrated this fandom by bringing anime’s favorite fictional restaurant to life. For one month, McDonald’s became WcDonald’s – anime’s beloved parody.

Through a mix of weekly episodic shorts, manga, and other immersive experiences, we took seasoned anime fans and newcomers alike on an epic journey into the world of WcDonald’s. To achieve this, we partnered with Japanese animation house Studio Pierrot to create four bespoke, hand-drawn episodic shorts. Released weekly, these episodes explored iconic anime genres: action, romance, mecha, and fantasy.

Staying true to anime traditions, each short was accompanied by a full-length digital manga, created in partnership with legendary Japanese manga artist Acky Bright. Together, these elements didn’t just form an ad campaign but an anthology of new WcDonald’s worlds.

To enhance the WcDonald’s experience, we introduced a new Savory Chili WcDonald’s Sauce and built an entire universe of characters and stories around the sauce and in-store experience.

We extended the WcDonald’s universe with brand-first packaging designs. To-go bags were transformed into manga comics, while WcNugget clamshells became dynamic anime sequences. Bringing WcDonald’s to life was a celebration of anime fandom and creativity, inviting fans to experience the magic of this legendary art form firsthand at McDonald’s.

For the first time, people across the globe who have seen WcDonald’s in their favorite anime series could live out that anime experience in real life.

Results: 

• $5.1 ROMI (Return on marketing investment) 

• 6.3BN social reach - highest campaign to date.

• $126 million incremental sales (one of our highest ever)