We wanted our promotion to be worldwide, to celebrate the individual by giving consumers a sense of ownership, and to reach everyone while holding down costs. We saw that McDonald’s could get more use out of a powerful ad medium: its own product packages, which were viewed by every customer. Once we conceived the basic idea of featuring customers on McDonald’s packaging via a worldwide casting call in 16 languages, the decision to use the Web as our submission vehicle logically followed.

The promotion was successful with the client because it was successful with consumers—surpassing expectations in entries, website hits and media coverage. The site received over 13 million hits, 13,000 entries and over 25 million media impressions, in addition to countless mentions in blogs. Finally, it created 24 brand ambassadors worldwide who truly personify the spirit of the McDonald’s brand.