McCafé is Dead

I got a brief to do a spec McCafé campaign, and immediately the strategy part of my brain said no way, we have put a stop to the McCafé program altogether, because It is awful.

It’s time to strip things back to that excellent McDonald’s regular coffee — and nothing else. We need a rebrand first. Because McDonald’s regular coffee is the BEST.

McDonald’s coffee will never be Starbucks — not in the eyes of consumers and not in terms of sales.

At McDonald’s, coffee is an add-on, not an entree. So bid farewell to the frilly McCafé concept with its flavors and toppings and welcome back the rebranded, straightforward choice — McDonald’s Coffee. Available in a small or large cup.

Sell it like the drug it is

McDonald’s Coffee consistently beats out Starbucks and Dunkin’ in blind taste tests, yet the public thinks McDonald’s Coffee is garbage.

Rather than trying to fight that ill-informed reputation, McDonald’s Coffee will shy from selling a premium coffee lifestyle image, and will instead embrace the real reasons people drink coffee: increased alertness and cognitive function, and improved performance at school and on the job.

It’s time to sell coffee like cocaine: drink this, and you will do more things and also do them faster.

The inaugural McDonald’s Coffee campaign features school photos of motivated teens getting even more motivated — championing the cognitive and nocturnal fuel that is caffeine.

McDonald’s Coffee. Drive-thru open late.

Unproduced spec project
Role: Art Director + Copywriter