McDonald's® and TBWA are advertising… wait, what?! Trash bins?!?

A striking sight in the street scene: beautiful images of trash bins with an eye-catching name, as it were a new type of hamburger… Not a Big Mac® this time, but a Big Bin, a Bin Royal and a Bin Deluxe. It’s a campaign by McDonald's® and TBWA against litter. “We want to make trash bins as popular as the burgers,” says Jeremie Goldwasser, Creative Director at TBWA.

Litter is bad for the planet, and bad for the brand. However, the brand is convinced that together with their clients, they can work step by step on the litter issue to become better together. “As a big brand we know about our responsibility and the impact we do have when it comes to the challenges of litter on streets”, says Philipp Wachholz, CMO at McDonald’s® Belgium. Their ambition? Being part of the solution, not the problem. “Hereby we need the support of our guests. Only in a strong alliance we will be successful together. Our campaign is supposed to raise the awareness for and also attractiveness of using bins. We pass on that serious message still with a typical McDonald’s® twinkle in the eye.” ​

Speaking of a twinkle in the eye, this unexpected campaign will actually put bins in the spotlight…as if they were new burgers! “With that insight in mind, we’ve obviously asked Studio Wauters - McDonald’s® permanent food photographer - to photograph the trash bins” adds Jeremie Goldwasser. “The challenge? Making bins look just as attractive and tempting as their burgers. We then applied the typical copywriting and design expertise to the bins, resulting in appetizing design and quirky names such as the Big Bin, the Bin Deluxe and the Bin Royal.”

To top it off, the campaign will also have an online section, with a making-off video showing all the tricks they used to make the bins look so good. Lighting, styling, retouching… Even the brand's baseline was adjusted for the occasion to “Clean streets, we're lovin' it.”

The campaign runs from May 10th to May 24th, online, in the restaurants and on more than 1500 posters all across the country. Here’s to hoping it becomes as unmissable as trash bins!