2% of India’s population is disabled, that’s nearly 27 million people - more than the entire population of Australia. 27 million individuals who are routinely left out of marketing efforts, national initiatives and even the most basic experiences, because of our deep-set apathy towards the disabled. Disability is an invisible problem in India, with the government and most companies doing the bare minimum.

As McDonald’s, our mission was to ‘Make Delicious Feel-Good Moments Easy For Everyone’. But when we discussed disability, we somehow only fixated on the easy i.e., access and not feel-good experience.

We realised that for many people with limited upper limb mobility the feel-good burger experience probably rated zero.

Our objective was to right this wrong in a way that drove true inclusivity at McDonald’s – capturing the country’s attention, improving people’s perception of our brand and inviting audiences that had long been ignored by Food Retail.

A small step in designing experience for the disabled,

A giant leap for access and inclusivity in food retail.

We worked with NASEOH (National Society For Equal Opportunities For the Handicapped) India to understand the challenges and requirements of the target group. Prototyping and running trials until we found the perfect solution. We were a team on a mission, looking to prove that the joy of eating a burger isn’t reliant on whether a person has both their hands.

And thus, a unique packaging design solution was born that reimagined the McDonald’s experience for millions of people struggling with limited upper limb mobility. A hexagonal packaging system which locks the burger and its contents into the package so that our disabled customers can enjoy it.

For most, eating a burger has been a very familiar experience. In pop culture and even in everyday life, the two-hand hold became an iconic code for burger eating.

But for people with limited upper limb mobility, eating their favorite burger often meant loss of dignity and independence, and a whole lot of embarrassment. Our research revealed that instead of being able to focus on the taste, they worried about making a mess or looking clumsy in a restaurant. Many even confessed to not having eaten out in public in years due to the stares and looks of pity they usually get in restaurants.

We launched our Eatqual Packaging on International day of Persons with Disabilities via facebook groups and NGOs dedicated to the disabled. We collaborated with influencers from the differently abled community – from athletes to artists, to get the word out to one and all.

We partnered with NGOs and disability experts to create a case called EatQual.

A specially designed case that holds the contents of a burger together for those with mobility issues, so they can eat it with just one hand.

We launched our full-fledged campaign with a digital post on 3rd December 2020, ‘International Day of Disabled Persons’. We followed it with a film, that featured a real-life electrocution survivor with limited hand mobility.

Print, social media, radio, instore communication drove home the message of EatQual

In-store events were organised in three cities: Mumbai, Pune & Chennai; where children with disabilities were invited to enjoy our burgers with the new packaging.

On social media, we collaborated with influencers from the differently abled community like Deepa Malik - a Paralympic winner , Suyash Jadhav - Indian Para Swimmer and Dhaval Khatri - a differently abled painter.

EatQual Captured the Country’s attention

• Impressions: 13.4 Million

• Reach: 11.1 Million

• Earned PR worth ₹7.2mn with just a meagre ₹200k spent on marketing

• Garnered 300k+ organic views in just 10 days

• Overall giving us a 35x return on investment

Improving McDonald’s Brand Scores

• 33% Increase in Brand Trust

• 67% Increase in Brand Interest

Inviting new audiences that had been long ignored by Food Retail

• Usage of our EatQual packs grew 7x in last 3 months – That’s Nearly 1000 Disabled guests enjoying burgers equally

Eatqual received unprecedented love and praise from our fans and from the disabled community, successfully changing the narrative of inclusivity in an apathetic country who sat up and took notice of a problem that we had long overlooked.