Friday, October 05, 2007

After the game, head over and get a salad – at McDonald’s

Maybe it is not what Marshall McLuhan meant when he said “the medium is the message,” but McDonald’s new Wrigleyville billboard is sprouting talk of the company’s new healthy menu.

The billboard, featuring the words “Fresh Salads” on a plain grey background, is specially designed such that the words are spelled out by growing bunches of lettuce.



While I’m all for healthiness, I question the validity of McDonald’s claims. And I have to say I am not sure the Wrigleyville crowd is going to appreciate the push for healthiness anyway. But this happens to have been great timing – with the Cubs in the playoffs, a lot of people will see the new billboard.

Ronald knows placement. This in not the first time an innovative billboard has appeared at this location. In fact, the “Fresh Salads” board is replacing a sundial that cast the McDonald’s arches to point to different breakfast items.

Could all this healthy marketing be an attempt at making an association with a healthy lifestyle? What if McDonald’s converted its play area to setup a local healthclub to give aerobics classes? They could offer Met-X protein boosts to the shakes.

Got another McDonald’s health association idea? Send me a comment!

1 comment:

Patrick Smith said...

Maybe they can move towards 2 types of menus. Fast Foods (what their current menu looks like now). Fast Energy (active lifestyle foods). Whole wheat wraps instead of the enriched wheat breads they currently use. Protien Bars/Energy Bars. I think your "boost" idea is a great one for the shakes. Vitiman water(s). Oatmeal. Egg White Omlets. They need to come up with a McDonalds version of RedBull or Gatorade. They might as well steal from Wendy's menu (or maybe they're waiting for them to go out of business first) and add a baked potato.