Many QSRs are looking to address consumer demand for food that is more sustainable, healthy and humane to animals by bulking up their plant-based offerings, but McDonald’s Canada’s newest campaign is once again showing how close it is with Canadian farmers in an omnichannel push behind its Egg BLT McMuffin.
A video component of the campaign puts the focus entirely on the egg, emphasizing quality and freshness, as well as the fact that they come from Canadian farms. The spot ends with the new Egg Quality Assurance mark, developed by the Egg Farmers of Canada, which will appear in ads for the McMuffin in TV, digital and print advertising, until the beginning of September. The campaign was led by long-time AOR Cossette.
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Egg Quality Assurance, or EQA, is an industry-wide initiative launched in February that reassures food ethics-concerned consumers that Canadian eggs are produced according to food safety and animal welfare standards, with on-farm inspections ensuring hens are raised in comfortable, clean surroundings.
According to McDonald’s, the re-launch of the Egg BLT McMuffin (which originally came to market in 1971) was the perfect opportunity to communicate its work with the Egg Farmers of Canada. It has regularly produced campaigns that speak to food sourcing practices with Canadian farmers, such as “Beef Sustainability: the Journey Ahead” in 2018. That campaign featured Alberta farmers lauding sustainability and reducing their environmental footprint, part of McDonald’s strategy to align locally and put the spotlight on the farms its food comes from and the farmers who produce it.
In 2015, McDonald’s announced it would switch to cage-free eggs in North America in response to growing sensitivities surrounding animal welfare, and according to an April 2019 report, the world’s largest QSR is one-third of the way to reaching its goal of sourcing entirely cage-free eggs, which are regarded as more humane.
A joint statement from McDonald’s and the Egg Farmers sent to strategy pointed out that while the standards underpinning the EQA certification mark have been around for decades (and all Canada Grade A eggs are EQA certified), the new mark communicates that in a “quick and easy” way, in an effort to be as transparent as possible about sourcing choices. The brands cited research conducted earlier this year that showed 94% of Canadians believe that egg cartons should bear a national certification symbol.
McDonald’s is communicating its partnership leveraging a similar look and feel of other campaigns, in this case featuring a combo of live action and animation (the iconic McDonald’s jingle is even sung by a rooster).
