Facebook-based campaigns are an increasingly common part of the marketing landscape, but using the medium to push giant burger-shaped balloons ever higher in the sky has certainly got to be a first.

This morning, a McDonald’s Canada Facebook campaign started generating votes on which classic McDonald’s burger they prefer: the Big Mac or Quarter Pounder with Cheese. However, instead of creating a microsite for voting, McDonald’s has taken a somewhat unusual approach to the voting-campaign strategy, and is using giant ‘burger balloons’ to track the polls.

The burger balloons are located in Landmark, Manitoba, the longitudinal centre of Canada. The balloons, one of which represents a Big Mac and the other a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, are being filmed and streamed live to the McDonald’s Canada Facebook page. Each time someone votes for their favourite burger, that vote is supposed to translate to the corresponding balloons’ progress in the sky, making the balloons a floating barometer of which burger is winning. At press time, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese was doubling the Big Mac for votes at 620 to 303 when the campaign first launched this morning, but had evened out at press time to about 1200 votes each.

The balloons are steaming live on the brand’s Facebook page from July 19 to July 28.