Good
news for cyclists who couldn’t quite figure out how to stuff their
happy meals into their messenger bags: McDonald’s has you covered. Sort
of. For its newest ad campaign, the burger-slinging chain partnered with
global ad agency Tribal to design a new form of packaging made
specifically for people on two wheels.
Called the McBike, the packaging is designed to carry a burger,
fries, and a drink. Cyclists simply hook the box onto their handlebars
and pedal off to the park to enjoy their well-rounded meal. The
packaging then unfolds, revealing two little pockets where the fries and
burger have been gently cocooned during the commute. It’s like a little
fat- and sugar-filled purse, and it’s great.
McDonald’s is in the midst of something of a rebrand. The burger
behemoth is losing ground to fast casual restaurants (think: Chipotle,
Shake Shack), whose fresher ingredients and somewhat healthier options
resonate with image-conscious 20-somethings. McDonald’s, too, wants to
tap into the sweet, sweet buying power of millennials, and the McBike is
an attempt to do that. “McDonald’s is trying to reach a new segment,”
explains Walter Ioli of Tribal Buenos Aires. “We found that the bike was
one of the preferred means of transportation for millennials, so it was
important that McDonald’s adapts to the new habits of its consumers.”
It all sounds like standard advertising parlance, and it is. But we
have to admit, the end result is a pretty neat piece of design that
solves one of the more confounding challenges in fast-food transport:
How do you tote the drink? The prototype shows how a small soda fits
snuggly into a hole in the bottom of the McBike box, hitting about
mid-beverage to minimize any sloshing or dripping.
For all its cleverness, the campaign was a one-day event that took
place in Copenhagen and Medellin, Colombia, presumably just so the short
film could be shot and passed around the Internet. Tribal says
McDonald’s has plans to experiment with this same concept in other
bike-friendly cities like Amsterdam and Tokyo, though it’s unclear if
there are plans to turn this into a more permanent solution. Designing
and manufacturing the packaging shouldn’t be too hard—after all,
McDonald’s is nothing if not consistent with its product. But you can
also imagine how introducing a new step into McDonald’s well-oiled
burger-disseminating system could wreak havoc on its efficiency.
Still, the company should seriously consider it. Who knows how many
people actually bike through drive-thrus, but it’s a nice reminder that
healthy, balanced living sometimes means you need to eat a bunch of
french fries after a long, invigorating ride.
