McDonald's Revamps "I'm Lovin' It" With New Video Ad

McDonald’s has launched a new video as part of its ongoing efforts to refresh its “I’m lovin’ it” tagline.

The ad, called “Archenemies,” was created by Leo Burnett, and features fictional rivals making peace. In it, Freddy Krueger spears three chicken nuggets with his razor claws and gives them to Jason. A Cheesehead shares his fries with a Bears fan, and Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the East pose for a selfie. In the background, Mozella sings about how love is endless.

“For the last 10 years, everything we’ve done can be summed up with three words: ‘I’m lovin’ it.’ It sits at the heart of our tag line, at the heart of our business. We are reigniting the lovin’ that’s been at the heart of the brand since the very beginning,” explains Deborah Wahl, chief marketing officer of McDonald’s.

The commercial is reminiscent of “Wonderfilled,” the 2013 video in which Oreo depicted sharing cookies with the Big Bad Wolf and a vampire. While “Archenemies” has gotten flak for being too similar, Greg Jarboe, president of SEO-PR, takes more issue with the disconnect between the video’s message and the brand’s overall identity.

“Once upon a time, back in the 1950s, a snappy jingle got people to go buy your product,” Jarboe says. “These days, there has to be an element of authenticity. What you’re selling has to be perceived as good and in the food market, that means healthy.”

He adds that “the brand image is zigging, while the reality is sagging.”

McDonald’s has fallen out of favor in recent years, particularly among the Millennial generation. Over the summer, the world’s largest fast-food chain made an attempt to turn its deteriorating image around, announcing that the menu would be revamping, and that its customer service and social media presence would be improved.

“Lately the balance of lovin’ and hatin’ seems off. Who better to stand up for lovin’ than McDonald’s?” says Wahl.

Jarboe thinks that while the new campaign is catchy, McDonald’s should have followed in its Canadian counterpart’s footsteps and focused on the elephant in the room: the chain’s nutritional content.

McDonald’s has an “Our Food. Your Questions.” section on its website where readers can submit questions. In 2012, McDonald’s Canada started taking to YouTube to answer some of the more controversial questions, such as do Egg McMuffins use real eggs and is the beef really treated with ammonia?

The fast-food chain recently started publishing similar videos, featuring Grant Imahara, who is best known as a Mythbusters host. The videos are slowly gaining traction; the most recent one, which addresses what McNuggets are made of, has been viewed more than 5 million times since being published on December 8.