Advertisement campaigns

McDonalds “Dead Dad” Advert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1XM4INk8l8

• Video advertisement released on television

• Advertisement includes a child trying to

relate to his dead father and finding his
only connection to his father is their love of
a McDonalds sandwich

• Extremely controversial and the ASA

received over 100 complaints
McDonalds Advert summary:
• Aim of the campaign: To inform the audience of their ’Fish Filet’ burger in hopes that people will buy the product. Further, it is
attempting to spread a ‘positive message’ or heartwarming feeling of some kind (which it fails at as is evident by the backlash
received.)

• Platforms advertised on: Television, YouTube, Social media channels (facebook, twitter etc.)

• Target Audience: The target audience for this advert is likely young people, as the young person is the focus of this advert. It
could also be aimed at parents who want to relate with their children

• Call to action: There isn’t a direct call to action in this video, which is another reason why I think it fails as an advertisement.
Although McDonalds has such impactful branding that simply showing the food and the logo with the jingle at the end is almost
an indirect call to action for people to buy the products.

• Representation: There isn’t much in the way of diverse representation in this advertisement, with the featured actors all being
the same race and speaking the same language. There is a representation of males and females, but this is not at all a focus or
key element of the advert.

• Legal and ethical issues: There are no legal issues encountered here, however the narrative of a dead family member being used
to promote the company was seen as an ethical controversy, resulting in the ad being pulled from television.
 Burger King ”Seven Incher”

• Poster advertisement posted online and put up physically in locations

nearby to Burger King

• Advertisement has many explicit sexual connotations relating to oral

sex, effectively using sexual imagery to sell their product. It was
clearly also intended in a comedic way, but many did not find the
joke humorous

• The woman pictured in the advert was not told that her image would
be used in a sexual manner, which angered her and caused her to
complain
Burger King Advert summary:
• Aim of the campaign: To inform potential customers of their new “super seven incher” burger and it’s pricing, in hopes that
customers will buy the product. The aim is also to entertain the audience with the clear sexual innuendo joke. This not only
serves to entertain, but also is a strong method of advertising as it makes the product stick in people’s minds as they link it to the
bold joke.

• Platforms advertised on: Social media channels (Facebook, Twitter etc.), Physical posters and billboards

• Target audience: The target audience of this advert is likely young adults, as they are likely to find the most humour in the bold
sexual joke, and also are a bigger demographic for fast food than an older or young child demographic.

• Call to action: The call to action here is for the audience to purchase the burger, as shown in the poster with the line “Fill your
desire for something long, juicy and flame grilled with the (insert product name)” This is also designed to be a comedic sexual
innuendo.

• Representation: This advertisement has a clear representation of women in it’s central actor, as she is depicted in a sexual
manner. This could be seen as a depiction of women as objects for sexual desire.

• Legal and Ethical issues: This advert presents clear ethical issues through the sexual connotations of the advert. As this advert
was displayed on billboards and posters in real life as well as on the burger king social media pages, it was likely seen by young
audiences who it might have been inappropriate for. The other obvious ethical issue was that the actress was not made aware of
the connotations that her picture would be used in.
Kit Kat “bench” advert campaign
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeycRaVIDtI

• multimedia advertisement campaign involving posters, physical

”benches” placed around different locations around the world, audio-
visual advertising campaigns on social media, and audience interactivity
and involvement.

• This Advertisement campaign is a huge and global campaign pushing Kit

Kat’s “Have a break” slogan. In this campaign, Kit Kat created several
“Break Benches” with different themes to be placed around different
popular locations with the intent of entertaining people and encouraging
them to share their experience with the benches on social media, thus
spreading the brand. These benches were designed to be easily shareable
on social media with their various designs, such as a bench with piano
tiles as the seats, a bench that you can plug your phone in and play music
through, a bench that has springs on it, etc.

• This is an excellent example of a viral marketing campaign, as it

successfully uses audience interaction and social media to push their
brand and products, whilst remaining interesting and creative
Kit Kat Advert campaign summary
• Aim of the campaign: To push their brand and encourage the audience to buy their products through audience interaction and viral
marketing. Also has the purpose of entertaining the audience with unique and creative designs and ideas that are interactive and
shareable.

• Platforms advertised on: Physical benches, signs and billboards. Social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.) and YouTube.

• Target audience : The target audience for this campaign is likely children to young adults, as they are likely to see these benches and share
them on social media due to being digital natives.

• Call to action: The call to action here ties in with the companies slogan to “Have a break,” with the signs by the benches saying “Have a
______ break” where the blank is related to the specific bench (e.g ’Musical break’ or ‘Uplifting break.’ This call to action also implies that
the audience should buy their product, as the message is covered with their branding, and the full slogan is “Have a break, have a Kit Kat.”

A more obvious call to action here is the instruction to “Share your break with us: #mybreak, KITKAT.ph.” this encourages users to share
their experience with a hashtag, which is a good viral marketing strategy, especially for gaining social media popularity.

• Legal and ethical issues: This Advertisement campaign is a good example of a campaign that has no obvious legal and ethical issues. As such
it was quite a successful campaign.