Oakbrook, IL
McDonald's Lincoln Fry
In late 2004, the Internet had already witnessed novelty food items (Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese, anyone?) fetch big bucks and bigger attention via online auctions. This inspired a script for a Super Bowl commercial, about a guy who finds a McDonald's french fry that resembles Abraham Lincoln and turns his life upside down in an effort to cash in. The team that wrote the script came to us (the creative team I led at Tribal DDB) requesting that we "make a fake auction where people could pretend to bid" on the Lincoln Fry.
My response was no. Let's do a real auction, for the prop. Make a mockumentary-style commercial transform into real life. Tease the commercial with a mockumentary companion blog, where we seed story details (knowing most people wouldn't see them until after the spot aired). And let's add another twist: dedicated the auction proceeds to be donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities. To do this, we launched the auction on Super Bowl Sunday, and ran it for six days to the following Saturday which happened to be Lincoln's birthday. We hit four big objectives along the way:
Leverage Partnerships
- Creative Development (DDB and Tribal DDB)
- Execution (Yahoo! and Tribal DDB)
Seed the Story
- Blog posts offered backstory and incidental details that would become Easter Eggs in the long-form spot.
Offer Exclusive Content
- Digital souvenirs available on McD.com the moment the spot first aired.
- Included AIM icons, desktop wallpapers, and print-at-home designs for heat-transfer fan apparel.
Sustain Interest
- We kept people's attention with a charitable twist not often seen in Super Bowl spectacles: the prop auction to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities. A donation of $75,100.00 — the entirety of the winning bid.
- In the week between the Super Bowl and the auction end, the campaign earned high profile attention in the form of a Jimmy Kimmel parody and coverage on CNN, Wall Street Journal, Captivate Elevator News Network, among others.
RESULTS:
- McDonald's earned an unfair share of attention and showed a new, engaging side of a brand that wasn't often seen in Super Bowl advertising.
- Won industry awards at Cannes, LIAA, and a Yahoo! Big Idea Award.
- Proved that pop culture eats itself: Golden Palace Casino inspired the story and ultimately placed the winning bid in the auction.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Creative Direction (Interactive & Digital)
- Blog (real-time story collaboration integration on preview blog while TV spot was filming)
- Campaign Experience Mapping
- Connections Planning
- Online Auction Concept & Copy
- Website, Paid Media, Partner Media (Creative Direction, Copy)
Integrated Overview
While the commercial was being filmed and edited, we created paid media ad units and a corresponding microsite on McDonald's USA. Paid media focused on views of the commercial, then clicks to the microsite for digital souvenirs and, eventually, a link to bid on the Lincoln Fry auction.
As the guy who conceived the extensions that would come before and after the commercial aired, I took responsibility for mapping program elements and coordinating when which pieces would go live. While my team built assets and waited on the final commercial edit, I took to writing the companion mockumentary blog (in the voice of the main character from the commercial).
"Teaser" blog, Charity Auction, Accolades
Written in the voice of the commercial's main character, the blog was intentionally "home made" if not a little gritty. Photos shared were naturally grainy, taken with one of the first smartphone cameras available to consumers in the US.
The mockumentary blog lasted until the commercial aired. Then, a final post from the author stated his decision to put the Lincoln Fry up for auction on Yahoo Auctions.
The campaign microsite imagined how the commercial's main character might have displayed news clippings on his kitchen fridge. These clippings linked to the blog, a photo gallery, an extended two-minute version of the Super Bowl commercial, a collection of digital souvenirs, and the Yahoo Auctions listing.
The Yahoo Auction listing for Lincoln Fry featured the same penny-reference photo that appeared in the commercial. By the time the dust settled from the Big Game, the winning bid was from Golden Palace Casino for $75,100.00. It was all donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities.
The campaign won several awards. The most peculiar of them was Yahoo! Big Idea Chair Award. We were invited to present the Lincoln Fry at a Yahoo Creative Summit in Detroit, and assumed we wouldn't win when pitted against competitors from the local automotive industry. But the audience proved us wrong and awarded Lincoln Fry the oversized purple chair. This chair spent the next decade moving around the DDB Chicago offices for Santa to sit on during company holiday parties.