McDonald’s celebrates its farms in latest TV ad

McDonald’s is unveiling its 2012 themed advertising campaign focusing on British farming, titled “That’s What Makes McDonald’s”.

The move comes two months after the restaurant chain said it would utilise its London 2012 Olympic Games sponsorship as an opportunity to boost British agriculture and raise awareness of the key role British farms will play in providing produce for the Olympic Games.

The ad highlights how McDonald’s sources the majority of its ingredients from the UK and Ireland, and aims to raise awareness of the vital role of British farms.

Filmed on location in Derbyshire, Cumbria and Staffordshire at farms supplying McDonald’s with organic milk, free-range eggs and potatoes respectively, it aims to celebrate the role of the British farms which supply many of the quality ingredients for McDonald’s food. It has been created by Leo Burnett with media planning and buying by OMD.

Jill McDonald, chief marketing officer for the UK and Northern Europe, says: “With this commercial we honour two things which are unmistakably British: unpredictable weather and first-rate farming. This is the next chapter in our ongoing campaign to drive awareness of the care and attention that our supply chain puts into producing McDonald’s food.”

McDonald’s is also opening some of the British and Irish farms that supply its menu to members of the public, recruited through its website, to see them firsthand and says it will formally share best practice across the entire farming community. Brand experts say this tie-up could prove successful for the brand.

The ad focuses on the weather and depicts the sun icon rising over the sea, children playing with giant rain icons and lightening icons striking over fields.

The film concludes by showing viewers some of the farms that provides McDonald’s with potatoes for its fries, free range eggs for their McMuffins and organic milk for its milk bottles.