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Analysis of McDonald’s McPlant Advertisement (2022)

  • Writer: Joe Carrick-Lawson
    Joe Carrick-Lawson
  • Dec 12, 2022
  • 9 min read

Figure 1: McPlant Poster Advertisement (BBC Good Food, 2022)


After featuring in a small campaign in 2021 for the trial period in the selected areas, the McDonald’s McPlant poster advertisement (shown in Figure 1) was officially released across the UK on the 5th of January 2022, coinciding with the release of the burger itself. It was displayed on bus stops and billboards across the country for the duration of the month. Despite appearing to be a simple photograph, the history, cultural background, and theoretical ideas behind the advert makes its intricate and deceptive marketing strategy appealing to the wide range of audiences McDonald’s aims to satisfy.

 

Founded by Maurice and Richard McDonald in California in 1940, and later being made into a franchise by Ray Kroc in 1955 (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022), McDonald’s has become one of the most popular and widespread fast-food establishments, serving over 70 million customers daily (Global Data, 2021). The restaurant was designed to optimise fast food production via the brothers “Speedee Service System”, which uses a limited menu, self-service counters, and heat lamps. This allowed food to be sold for a much cheaper price compared to competitors (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2022). These innovations were further developed by Kroc, as well as the implementation of the core values the company has. These are: serve (putting customers first), inclusion, integrity, community, and family (McDonald’s, 2017). This diversity allows the company to become a notable part of an area, and one which a range of people can enjoy, from families with young children, groups of teenage friends, workers on a lunch break, and so on. Therefore, this creates the friendly and welcoming persona the company strive to present.

 

Despite this wide appeal, McDonald’s has been notable for its lack of vegetarian and vegan options. The environmental and ethical benefits of plant-based alternatives to meat products have been prevalent for decades. Peter Singer’s 1976 book, ‘Animal Liberation’ promotes the idea that: ‘Until we boycott meat we are, each one of us, contributing to the continued existence, prosperity, and growth of factory farming and all the other cruel practises used in rearing animals for food’ (1976: 175). These criticisms have been used to slander the integrity of large corporations making billions from the sales of factory farmed meat products, including McDonald’s. Although in the decades since Singer’s statements, meat-free diets have become more popular, and thus have had a higher economic benefit for companies. Keith Tester named this process ‘McCartneyization’ after the successful meat-free, processed, frozen-food business ‘Linda McCartney’ (1999: 217-219). Therefore, as more companies began adding vegan items to their menus as a business strategy, McDonald’s also became inclined to develop their meat-free alternative.

 

To achieve this, McDonald’s formed partnerships with vegan food companies. Beyond Meat is one such company, founded by Ethan Brown in 2009 (Jacobsen, 2014). Its mission is to use plant-based sources ‘to recreate the basic architecture, and thus texture, of meat that carnivores know and crave’ (Beyond Meat, 2015). Similarly, Veganuary, a non-profit organization, which encourages people globally to be vegan for January, have also partnered with McDonald’s. The McPlant become one of the 1,540 vegan menu items which were released globally in 2022 as a partnership with the organization (Veganuary, 2022). Similar strategies have been employed by other companies, including Greggs’ Vegan Sausage Roll in January 2019 (Barrie, 2019), KFC’s Vegan Burger also in January 2019 (Young, 2019), and Burger King’s Rebel Whopper and Vegan Nuggets in January 2020 (Petter, 2020) and 2022 respectively (Theil, 2022). Therefore, as the challenge’s popularity increases, so to does the marketing potential. This resulted in the McPlant, featuring ‘a plant-based patty co-developed with Beyond Meat, […] innovative vegan cheese based on pea protein that tastes just like McDonald’s iconic cheese slices, and a new vegan sandwich sauce’ (McDonald’s, 2022a).

 

The advert features the McPlant burger, unwrapped on a wooden surface, with blurred leaves in the background. This is accompanied by McDonald’s logo, Beyond Meat’s logo, and the Vegetarian Society approved stamp. The advert also displays the McPlant logo supplemented by the slogan ‘Our iconic taste, plant based’. The poster (as well as the accompanying film advert) was created by food photographer Scott Grummett, who has worked with McDonald’s since 2021. He has worked with over 50 companies, including Honest Burgers, Just Eat, KFC, Nando’s, and Subway (Grummett, 2022a). His advert is intertextual of previous McDonald’s adverts, such as the Marc Donaldson’s 2015 Saver Menu Adverts (Figure 2). As Grummett stated: this was ‘to ensure that whilst vegan it still felt like a McDonald’s product’ (2022b).


Figure 2: Savers Menu Cheeseburger Advert (Donaldson, 2015)


Semiotics is defined by Sebeok as ‘the study of the innate capacity of human beings to produce and understand signs of all kinds’ (1994: xii). The advert contains multiple signs, symbols, and indexes implying the focus on natural ingredients. For example, the counter in the “a” of the word “McPlant” is shaped to resemble a leaf, a common symbol to represent nature (as leaves are found on most plants). It is also associated with vegetarian and vegan food items as a leaf is an important symbol used in the “suitable for” logos (for example in Figure 3). Furthermore, the background displays a blurred image featuring various shades of green interspersed with white. This resembles a garden wall trellis, or the view seen while looking up at trees on a sunny day, with sunlight coming through the gaps. This implies the burger itself has descended from the natural environment. It also provokes memories of enjoying summer days outside, linking to the suggested enjoyment one may have eating the burger.


 Figure 3: Suitable for Vegetarians Logo (Spruce, 2016)


Colour is also used to relate the company to the plant-based ideology. As Gillian Dyer discussed, ‘objective correlation’ (where the company’s colours are echoed in the advert’s mise-en-scene) is used so ‘the qualities and style of one will enhance the other through this visual link’ (1982: 95). The red and yellow of McDonald’s ‘golden arches’ logo can also be seen in the red and yellow of the tomato and cheese, and the red and yellow of the ketchup and mustard, which surrounds the green of the lettuce and pickle. This implies that McDonald’s encapsulates healthy, plant-based foods, as it is part of, and surrounding, the healthy ingredients.

 

The slogan utilizes rhythm as it ‘allows people to remember things more easily and can convey and induce all sorts of emotions’ (Dyer, 1982: 120). The two major linguistic symbols implemented in this are “iconic” and “plant”. The former implies the famous quality and unique favours of McDonald’s beef burgers, such as their well-known secret burger sauce. The latter connotes the myths around healthiness. This is achieved through ‘giving an historical intention a natural justification’ (Barthes, 1957: 142), as the continued campaigns towards healthy eating through schools, as well as vegan activism (especially during the period this advert was displayed), have created links between natural foods and biological benefits.

 

As an overall layout, the poster shares a paradigmatic relationship with similar McDonald’s adverts, both by Grummett and by previous creators. As Bignell discussed: ‘[Each] sign in the syntagm could also be replaced by another sign […] relating to a similar signified’ (2002: 13). In this case, the positions of the product, typography, and logo is kept relatively the same. The change in sign of the product is anchored to the change in symbols of the text ‘to fix the floating chain of signifieds in such a way as to counter the terror of uncertain signs’ (Barthes, 1964: 37). This ensures that the poster (and all other posters) is clear, simplistic, and concise to illustrate the item as quickly as possible to the audience, whilst still showing it is new and unique.


Figure 4: Three McDonald’s Poster Adverts (Grummett, 2021)



Hyperreality, as Baudrillard states: ‘substituting signs of the real for the real itself’ (1983: 4), is also noticeable in this poster. The simplistic design is made to resemble a naturalistic photograph that transcends reality, creating an image which is more real than real. Baudrillard also states: ‘Art has been dissolved within a general aestheticization of everyday life, giving way to a pure circulation of images, a transaesthetic of banality’ (1990: 11). This furthers the illusion of reality, as its seemingly uninteresting style makes it appear as if any ordinary person who purchases the McPlant could achieve the exact same image with their own camera, suggesting the burger on the advertisement is not fake. This is a strategy employed by McDonald’s before and after the McPlant advert (demonstrated in Figures 2, 4, and 5), further cementing the McPlant as a new edition to McDonald’s menu with the same prevalence as their other items.


Figure 5: McCrispy Advert (Grummett, 2022)


Although, the image of the burger in the advertisement is a simulation of the “real” McPlant one would find in a McDonald’s restaurant, not one possible to replicate with a store-brought example. Several alterations have been made to change the fundamental, rationalised origin to create a more appealing product, in doing so, making it hyperreal. This is a second order simulation, which ‘blurs the lines between reality and representation’ (Lane, 2000: 84). George Ritzer points out aspects of this common in fast-food advertising, such as the bun seeming average size, yet appearing smaller than the patty and the fixings, which spill over the edges. This is further emphasised by the drips of sauce and flakes of lettuce scattered around the base of the bun. By association, this makes the filling appear larger than it actually is, thus ‘giving the illusion of quantity’ (Ritzer, 2004: 81). The advertisement also utilises high-key lighting to enhance the bright, and therefore appetizing, colours of the various fillings. This is achieved through studio lights, rather than the implied natural light, and ‘little tin foil and a bag worth of tennis balls in the background’ (Grummett, 2022b) which creates the fake sunlight bokeh effect present. This takes advantage of the evolutionary mechanism humans have, where brighter foods are likely to be fresh and safe to consume compared to duller, imperfect foods which may be rotten and could cause health concerns. This implies the ingredients are of the highest quality. The Beyond Burger has been further doctored to colour correct the hue of the patty. This is to differentiate the commonly seen dark brown colour portrayed in adverts featuring beef patties, as, for the plant-based alternative, ‘peas provide the protein; beetroot provides the meaty red hue’ (Beyond Meat, 2015). Red is often associated with protein, as it the colour of uncooked meat, thus implying the benefits this burger has for meat-free diets which lack proteins from the traditional source. However, in reality, both beef and plant-based patties have a similar brownish colour.

 

The 2022 McPlant poster advert may appear simplistic and repetitive at first, although, as these approaches show through semiotics and hyperreality, the marketing ideas employed by McDonald’s create an intricately layered meaning conveyed quickly and effectively to the audience. This strategy is evidently successful, as the “McCrispy” advert in Figure 5 was released 10 months after the McPlant in October 2022 (McDonald’s, 2022b). It too was produced by Scott Grummett and shares a similar visual style using the same approaches.





Bibliography


Barthes, Roland (1957) ‘Mythologies’, Paris: Editions du Seuil


Barthes, Roland (1964) ‘Rhetoric of the image’, in Evans, Jessica and Hall, Stuart (eds.) ‘Visual Culture: A Reader’, London: SAGE Publications


Baudrillard, Jean (1983) ‘Simulations’, Semiotext(e)


Baudrillard, Jean (1990) ‘The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomena’, Paris: Editions Galilée


Bignell, Jonathan (2002) ‘Media Semiotics: An Introduction’, Manchester: Manchester University Press


Dyer, Gillian (1982) ‘Advertising as Communication’, London; New York: Routledge


Lane, Richard J. (2000) ‘Jean Baudrillard’, Abingdon: Routledge


Ritzer, George (2004) ‘The McDonaldization of Society – Revised New Century Edition’, London: Pine Forge Press


Sebeok, Thomas A. (1994) ‘An Introduction to Semiotics’, London: Pinter Publishers


Singer, Peter (1976) ‘Animal Liberation: Towards an End to Man’s Inhumanity to Animals’, London: Jonathon Cape


Tester, Keith (1999) ‘The Moral Malaise of McDonaldization: The Values of Vegetarianism’, in Smart, Barry (1999) ‘Resisting McDonaldization’, London: Sage Publications

 

 


Webography



Barrie, John (2019) ‘Greggs vegan sausage roll launches today – here’s everything you need to know’, i News, Available at: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/greggs-vegan-sausage-rolls-confirmed-when-launch-date-240931 (Accessed: 26 November 2022)


Beyond Meat (2015) ‘Beyond Burger: The Revolutionary Plant-Based Burger that Looks, Cooks, and Satisfies Like a Traditional Beef Burger’. Available at: https://beyond-meat-cms-production.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/783a5e0a-dabd-4601-b9ee-78920fc94c8d.pdf (Accessed: 24 November 2022)


Encyclopaedia Britannica (2022) ‘McDonald’s’, Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/McDonalds (Accessed: 26 November 2022)



Grummett, Scott (2022a) ‘About’, Available at: https://www.scottgrummett.com/about (Accessed: 7 December 2022)


Grummett, Scott (2022b) ‘McPlant’, Available at: https://www.scottgrummett.com/blog/mcplant (Accessed: 7 December 2022)

Jacobsen, Rowan (2014) ‘This Top-Secret Food Will Change the Way You Eat’, Outside, Available at: https://www.outsideonline.com/food/top-secret-food-will-change-way-you-eat/#close (Accessed 26 November 2022)


McDonald’s (2017) ‘Our Mission and Values’, Available at: https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/our-company/who-we-are/our-values.html (Accessed: 8 December 2022)


McDonald’s (2022a) ‘McDonald’s UK&I Is Proud to Announce the New McPlant is Officially…Everywhere! 🍔🌱’. Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/newsroom/article/the_new_mcplant.html (Accessed: 24 November 2022)


McDonald’s (2022b) ‘McDonald’s introduces the game-changing NEW McCrispy making it the first permanent chicken burger in 15 years’, Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/newsroom/article/new-mccrispy.html#:~:text=Comedian%20Keith%20Lemon%2C%20entertainer%20Michael,TV%20advert%20will%20launch%20nationwide. (Accessed: 11 December 2022)


Petter, Olivia (2020) ‘Burger King UK has launched its first plant-based burger but vegans can’t eat it’, The Independent, Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-uk-plant-based-burger-not-suitable-for-vegans-2020-1?r=US&IR=T (Accessed: 26 November 2022)


Theil, Michele (2022) ‘Burger King launches ‘UK’s first’ vegan nuggets’, Metro, Available at: https://metro.co.uk/2022/01/04/burger-king-launches-uks-first-vegan-nuggets-15862138/#:~:text=Though%20the%20release%20is%20coinciding,burger%2C%20released%20in%20April%202021. (Accessed: 26 November 2022)


Veganuary (2022) ‘About Us’, Available at: https://veganuary.com/about/about-us/ (Accessed: 26 November 2022)


Young, Sarah (2019) ‘KFC confirms new vegan burger will launch in UK stores this week’, The Independent, Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/kfc-vegan-zero-chicken-burger-poster-london-uk-instagram-twitter-a9263921.html (Accessed: 26 November 2022)

 


 

Figures



  1. BBC Good Food (2022) 'McPlant', Pocket Mags, Available at: https://pocketmags.com/bbc-good-food-magazine/february-2022/articles/1097199/mcplant (Accessed: 24 November 2022)

  2. Donaldson, Marc (2015) ‘McDonald’s Saver Menu’, Available at: https://www.marcdonaldson.co.uk/work/mcdonaldssavermenu (Accessed: 2 December 2022)

  3. Spruce, Hannah (2016) ‘Food Packaging Symbols: What Do They Mean?’, Available at: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/food-packaging-symbols/ (Accessed 11 December 2022)

  4. Grummett, Scott (2021) ‘McDonald’s’, Available at: https://www.scottgrummett.com/commissions/mcdonalds (Accessed: 8 December 2022)

  5. Grummett, Scott (2022) ‘Work’, Available at: https://www.scottgrummett.com/ (Accessed: 11 December 2022)


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