Launched during the first all-Canadian 20 May game of the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs, an integrated campaign from McDonald’s Canada links the league’s tradition for players growing beards for luck during the playoffs to the chain’s famous food and drink offerings.
Led by a set of animated illustrations by artist Edgar Rozo, the executions are all based on players from the two teams and blend their personalities and physical profiles to a classic McDonald’s menu item (positioned in each ad on/below the chin): including the Big Mac, Fries, McCafe and the Sundae.
The campaign, which launched in in Montreal on Thursday 20 May for the first game of the series, was created by agency Cossette and spans in-store, out-of-home (including billboards and bus stops), plus print, social media and mobile.
This objective of this menu-based activation sees McDonald’s leverage hockey playoffs tradition in order to position itself as the quick service restaurant for those who don’t want to miss a minute of the action.
The campaign was created for a McDonald’s Canada marketing team led by Melissa Hains and Suzanne Grondin by a group at agency Cossette which included Creatives Cédric Audet, Julien Hérisson and Philippe Brassard, Strategist Jean-Xavier Wilhelmy, with production handled by Vanessa Audigand and Jessica Malo and illustrations by Edgar Rozo.
Comment:
It’s one of Activative’s favourite sporting traditions and our team all feels that the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs simply wouldn’t be the same without all those spectacular beards.
The superstitious practice was introduced back in the 1980s and since then has become de rigour amongst hockey players and has even worked its way into the superstitions surrounding some other sports.
The mid-may first-round series features two of the four Canadians teams to qualify for the 2021 Playoffs. The match-up is the first time that the two rivals, arguably Canadian hockey’s most famous and storied franchises, have faced one another since 1979. Making this series is a big battle of the sporting giants in Canada.
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