2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Ramadan is a holy month, when Muslims fast, abstaining from food and drink from dawn to dusk.   Yet, most food brands in the UAE don’t fast from advertising their food and drink offers, often being insensitive and disrespectful to the local culture.   In Ramadan 2016, McDonald’s a global brand, showed respect for the local culture and fasted from food and drink advertising!   Meet “The No Distractions Billboard”. A first-of-its-kind billboard in the region, placed on the busiest highway in the UAE, where we removed McDonald’s products as a mark of respect to people fasting during Ramadan.

Creative Execution

Conscious that mouth-watering images of Big Macs and McNuggets would be a serious distraction for people fasting, rather than the usual food images, a big global brand showed respect to the local culture and those fasting by removing its products from its billboard! The Billboard was designed with recognizable, iconic McDonald’s branding; just without any food images. While the billboard was created to not distract those fasting, it had the opposite reaction online as it became the most viral billboard in MENA. Social media feeds starting buzzing with our McDonald’s billboard, not only in the UAE, but across the globe. online influencers and commentators, started talking about how they respected the idea. We picked up these shares, created content for PR and spent $2560 to seed the idea on leading media websites in the UAE. Leading news and media outlets in the region and worldwide picked up the idea too.

(1) 10.5 million people saw the ad and over a million were reached online. (2) 90% positive sentiments towards the idea, with a lot of love from everyday people: “Even McDonalds shows respect in Ramadan but some of you still retweet food pics.” “One of the best #advertising campaigns that I have ever seen in the Middle East – brilliant work @McDonalds #Ramadan.” “I gotta give it to @McDonalds for such a culturally sensitive brilliant ad for #Ramadan in #Dubai.” “You don’t have to spend tons of money for a viral ad! Here’s how @McDonaldsUAE wowed the internet with a simple ad.” (3) $236,900 PR coverage. (4) +244% increase in monthly followers on Facebook. (5) +15% increase in Ramadan sales vs. 2015.

This idea is about using a conventional and often creatively ignored channel in the MENA region - The Billboard - in an unconventional and effective media. It's about a big global brand fasting from food and drink advertising in Ramadan (the month of fasting) in the UAE, by taking its products off its billboards in key highways of the city. And as a result, earned positive WOM, gained brand respect, grew brand love and also, generated more sales than the previous years' Ramadan. As it constitutes effective media creativity and placement at its core, it is relevant for Media Lynx.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

In the UAE, much like the rest of the Muslim World, people abstain from food and beverages during the day in Ramadan. Yet, in this sensitive time, most food brands don’t abstain from food in their advertising. Fasting residents of the UAE are flooded with an overload of food imagery across all channels, especially outdoor media, whilst they’re driving during a hot and tiring summer. And we all know when we’re hungry, food is the worst distraction. For McDonald’s, to make the brand be seen as being culturally sensitive and culturally additive, we wanted to do something a little different and very impactful. Aware of the culture and being sensitive to those who were fasting, we broke the Ramadan clutter, by using the most over-exploited channel of food and beverage brands in the region (and quite honestly, the most creatively-neglected channel too): THE BILLBOARD.