skills/creative-director/references/legendary-campaigns/cards/mcdonalds-follow-the-arches-2018.md

---
id: mcdonalds-follow-the-arches-2018
title: "Follow the Arches"
brand: McDonald's
agency: Cossette
year: 2018
country: CA
region: north_america
industry: qsr
pattern: [P17]
category: ooh_print
idea_type: campaign
involvement: passive_view
channel: physical
duration: campaign
goal: [awareness, sales, trial]
budget: medium
emotion: [wry_affection, ironic]
emotion_tier: 3
insight_domain: joy
media_epoch: ooh
awards: [cannes_grand_prix, multiple]
quality_score: 9
scalability: unique
risk: safe
confidence: high
quality: canonical
source_url: https://www.cossette.com/en/work/mcdonalds-follow-the-arches
---

# Follow the Arches (McDonald's · 2018)

## Insight

The McDonald's logo is so universally recognized that you don't need to show the whole thing. The Golden Arches, cropped to a fragment, can function as a directional navigation tool.

## Mechanic

OOH directional signs: the McDonald's logo cropped at different angles to indicate turn direction (left arc = turn left, right arc = turn right, upward arc = straight ahead). No wordmark, no additional information. The fragment navigates.

## Why it worked

Design as idea: only a brand with total visual saturation can strip its logo to an unidentifiable fragment and have it still communicate. The campaign tested brand recognition by betting on it — and won. Confidence is the message.

## Steal

Test your logo at extreme reduction: crop it, rotate it, cut it to 10%. If it still communicates, you have permission to use the fragment as an idea. If it doesn't, you need to build more brand recognition before this works.

## Related
- Pattern: [[../MOC-pattern.md#p17]]
- Sibling: [[absolut-absolut-campaign-1981.md|Absolut _____]]
- Sibling: [[apple-think-different-1997.md|Think Different]]
- Emotion match: [[guinness-surfer-1999.md|Surfer]]

---

*Author: Serge Shima ([t.me/aimastersme](https://t.me/aimastersme) · [sergeshima.com](https://sergeshima.com) · [aimasters.me](https://aimasters.me)) · License: CC BY 4.0 — attribution required · Source: [smixs/creative-director-skill](https://github.com/smixs/creative-director-skill)*