We've seen no shortage of creative billboard campaigns from McDonald's in recent years, and they often serve to demonstrate how powerful brand recognition can be. With just a few words or even colours, an ad can clearly belong to one particular brand – and this might just be the most minimal offering we've seen.
These minimal billboards are a few years old, but they've recently resurfaced on Reddit – and users are loving the designs. The campaign asks viewers to 'follow the arches', with cropped details of the famous McDonald's golden arches acting as direction signs pointing towards the nearest restaurant. (Looking for more inspiration? Check out the best print ads ever.)
Design agency Cossette describes how the campaign chops up "the world's most recognisable logo," to prove that "the McDonald’s arches are so ingrained in the minds of consumers that even if you cut them into pieces, they’re still familiar." By zooming in on aspects of the symbol, the agency created "universally understandable road signs".
(Image credit: Cossette)
And Reddit users are marvelling at just how recognisable they are. "McDonald's are the kings of brand recognition. At that point, I'm pretty sure a full red billboard would still remind us of them," one user comments, while another adds, "They literally own the colour combination of red and yellow."
Some of the many multi-lingual versions of the concept (Image credit: Cossette)
Indeed, this isn't the first ingenious minimal piece of marketing we've seen from McDonald's – remember when it ditched its branding entirely? Still, last year's sizzling Burger King rebrand still wears the crown when it comes to burger branding.
Daniel John is Senior News Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of art, design, branding and lifestyle tech (which often translates to tech made by Apple). He joined in 2020 after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more.
