These ingenious McDonald's ads are a rodeo of optical illusions

It's stampede season In Canada, and McDonald's is buckling up for the world's biggest outdoor rodeo with a timely themed extension of its clever minimalist advertising

To coincide with the 2025 Calgary Stampede, the McDonald's Cowboy Closeups campaign features a series of sartorial optical illusions. The billboard ads show iconic western fashion staples that might leave you feeling strangely hungry.

Developed with Cossette Vancouver, the campaign weaves some of the fastfood giant's most famous menu items – fries, Big Mac and Vanilla Cone – into traditional Western threads. A burger appears in the band of a cowboy hat, the fringe on a jacket sends us a subliminal message to order fries.

McDonald's Canada says the billboards are intended as a celebration of "our shared values of community, quality and Canadian pride, all in a playful, memorable way.”

The ads are subtle enough that you could miss them at first glance, forcing you to do a double take. It's a smart, attention-grabbing way to make the brand part of the event rather than just a sponsor, and the photography shows how small details can carry a lot of meaning.

The McDonald's logo is included on the billboards for clarification, but I wonder if it's even necessary. What do you think? (see our pick of the best billboard ads for more inspiration).