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[Eddie-Griffin]

https://www.thedrum.com/news/2022/1...mers-unearth-food-likes-the-gaming-multiverse

McDonald’s has challenged gamers to hunt for McDonald’s ‘food-alikes’ in the gaming multiverse, which can be exchanged for actual McDonald’s food in real life.

The ‘Unbranded Menu’ campaign was launched by the Philippines’ most popular gaming personality Alodia Gosiengfiao, who shared a screengrab of a Big Mac lookalike inside Grand Theft Auto V and challenged her eight million followers to launch their own search.

The campaign encourages gamers to seek out digital food that looks like McDonald’s food items and tag #ThisIsMcDonalds. McDonald’s food, gaming credits, consoles and other gaming merchandise are being given away in exchange for tagged screengrabs.
The campaign is unearthing unbranded virtual food items that – despite being logo-free – bear an uncanny resemblance to McDonald’s iconic French Fries, Big Mac, Quarter Pounder, Cheeseburgers, Hash Browns and Sundaes.
The items have been found in classic video games, such as The Sims and Resident Evil, as well as in online multiplayer games, like Fall Guys, Roblox and PUBG, role-playing games, including Final Fantasy and The Last of Us, and even in games such as Call of Duty, Guardians of the Galaxy.
Raoul Panes, chief creative officer at Publicis Groupe Philippines and Leo Burnett Manila, said: “As a brand that lives in culture in the most authentic, playful ways, McDonald’s has been brainstorming ways to connect with the Philippines’ 40+ million strong gaming community.
“Then we stumbled upon an amazing discovery: so much food in the gaming multiverse looks just like McDonald’s products, despite being unbranded. Why not hack this unbranded space to build brand love for McDonald’s through the gamer behavior of screen-grabbing milestones and discoveries for posterity or bragging rights?”

Trailer for the campaign,


This campaign is apparently WW looking at some of the responses on Twitter. So if you use the tag on social media, then a McDonald's account will eventually contact you if what you show indeed resembles McDonalds food or other products/logo, and you can win a prize from food, to merchandise, and even consoles.

It seems McDonald's thinks this will improve their branding among gamers. They must be getting tired of losing to Taco-Bell/KFC/Doritos/Mountain Dew and are giving gamers incentives to waste time be ambitious and look for these small little McDonalds clones in their games.

As the article quotes at the bottom, the guy says they want to "build brand love" with gamers for McD's.

Anyone interested in participating?

 

[AJUMP23]

Not interested. And what makes them think they need to convince gamers to like their food.

 

[Unknown?]

They going to make a Doritos Big Mac?

 

[ReBurn]

Not interested. And what makes them think they need to convince gamers to like their food.

do you think people who subsist on mt. dew and doritos are really gonna turn down some free nuggies from mcdonald's? I know I won't take any convincing

 

[SweetShark]

No gonna lie, this seems a scheme for McDonald to find people to sue.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

No gonna lie, this seems a scheme for McDonald to find people to sue.

ok im in.

 

[Deerock71]

Not interested. And what makes them think they need to convince gamers to like their food.

 

[Florin4k4]

BRB. Just gotta make something in dreams

 

[thismeinteil]

#ThisIsMcDonalds

 

[Senua]

Not interested. And what makes them think they need to convince gamers to like their food.

 

[intbal]

#ThisIsMcDonalds

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

I wonder if Maccas will make another game at some point?

 

[TheInfamousKira]

At least it's not like a sponsored pixel hunt in the top ten multi player games like I was assuming.

"Find the fucking Hamburglar shaped cloud that scrolls across our sky box once every six days, but only during inclement weather, and only when your team is winning!"

 

[Tams]

Lol. What marketing brainfail came up with this?

 

[Lunarorbit]

What ever happened to jack in the box? I used to see their commercials all the time and I think they usually marketed to gamers. Just read they sponsor some overwatch teams

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Not gonna lie...when i started reading the topic title i thought they were giving Series S with Happy Meals now just in december.

 

[64bitmodels]

Not gonna lie...when i started reading the topic title i thought they were giving Series S with Happy Meals now just in december.

honestly considering how aggressively MS is pushing that console it wouldn't be out of the question

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Apparently before this closes up Mcdoanlds is doing weighted prizes now based on how much the object or objects that resemble McDonalds are prominent on screen, so you'll win better prizes if it's a bigger deal, than if it's a very small polygon box of fries you have to zoom in on.