McDonald’s Serves Fries To… Noses In Tastefully Simple Scented Billboards
Video screenshot via McDonald’s Netherlands
Equally as iconic as McDonald’s Golden Arches are the aromas of its menu items. They linger on the streets and on the commute, and you just know whoever’s carrying these scents in a bag would be having a good dinner that night.
For a while now, the fast-food giant has been boldly playing around with customers’ brand recognition by omitting its logo from billboards and posters, and replacing them with subtler cues. Its latest takeover in the Netherlands built on this experimentation, though this time it fed a more primal sense. Forgoing flashy visuals, McDonald’s and advertising agency TBWA\NEBOKO deployed a series of plain red and yellow billboards in Utrecht and Leiden. The secret ingredient was the french fry scent hidden in the signs, relying on the public’s adeptness at sniffing out the McDonald’s favorite.
“People could look away, but they couldn’t smell away,” the narrator proclaims in the campaign’s video.
Passersby within five meters (16 feet) of the displays would be greeted by the unmistakable aroma of the famous side item wafting from the billboards themselves, infused through ventilators stashed inside the advertisements. The billboards were strategically placed within walking distance of actual McDonald’s restaurants, so those enticed by the irresistible aroma could easily satisfy their cravings with the real thing.
Image via McDonald’s / PR Newswire
The campaign, dubbed Smells Like McDonald’s, used scent to get in touch with the public’s nostalgia, evoking positive associations with happy meals and good times. Studies show that smell can trigger memories and emotions more effectively than sight, making it a potent tool for advertising—no logos needed.
And although Smell-O-Vision isn’t a thing yet, we’re willing to guess you can almost smell the image below.
Video screenshot via McDonald’s Netherlands
[via New York Post and Ads of the World, video and screenshots via McDonald’s Netherlands]
