McDonald’s leans into anime with ‘WcDonald’s’ campaign

Anime fans are likely familiar with WcDonald’s and its upside-down Golden Arches logo, which anime show creators have used for years to reference the fast food chain without being sued. Now McDonald’s is bringing WcDonald’s to the real world as part of a campaign that includes a new sauce, manga-inspired packaging and four short anime episodes that McDonald’s will distribute on a special website. The effort, from Wieden+Kennedy, is the latest example of a brand leaning into anime and manga, which have become increasingly popular with Gen Z. Starting Feb. 26, McDonald’s customers can order Savory Chili WcDonald’s sauce and 10-piece “WcNuggets.” WcDonald’s packaging will feature illustrations from Acky Bright, a manga artist and former illustrator for DC Comics. Bright, who worked with McDonald’s Japan on a music video last year, has also worked with Hasbro, Netflix and Meta. The special packaging includes QR codes that take viewers to digital expressions of manga characters Bright created for the campaign, including a WcDonald’s customer named Hashirune, a WcDonald’s employee named Mr. Bev, and WcDizer 3000, a Transformer-like robot, or mecha as they are called in anime. “Anime is a huge part of today’s culture, and we love that our fans have been inviting us into the conversation for years,” Tariq Hassan, chief marketing and customer experience officer at McDonald’s U.S., said in a statement. “The WcDonald's universe is a reflection of what fans have created. It honors their vision and celebrates their creativity, while authentically bringing it to life in our restaurants for the first time ever.” The brand started teasing the campaign on Tuesday on social media and through text messages to customers. It will run in more than 30 countries. View this post on Instagram A post shared by McDonald’s (@mcdonalds) For the anime short episodes, McDonald’s partnered with Studio Pierrot, the Japanese animation house behind “Naruto,” “Bleach” and “Tokyo Ghoul.” The McDonald’s-tailored episodes will debut every Monday from Feb. 26 until March 18. Customers can access them by scanning codes on the packaging or visiting WcDonalds.com. Each short will focus on one of anime’s four biggest subgenres—action, romance, mecha and fantasy. The shorts will double as TV commercials for the campaign. McDonald’s has done other anime-related partnerships. In 2022, the chain shared fan art of the anime-inspired mascot of OfflineTV, a content creator group. McDonald’s then partnered with Webtoon, a platform for Korean digital comics that share stylistic similarities to Japanese manga, for a “Drawing on Heritage” campaign that spotlighted the manga of four Webtoon artists for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. At last year’s Anime Expo in Los Angeles, McDonald’s worked with Webtoon again to create a pop-up restaurant. For the chain’s “As Featured In” meal, the marketing featured the anime “The Devil is a Part Timer,” where the main character works at MgRonald’s. Other brands tapping into the trend include language-learning app Duolingo, which recently partnered with anime platform Crunchyroll to include famous anime phrases as part of Duolingo’s Japanese lessons. Makeup brand ColourPop has released “Naruto” and “Sailor Moon”-inspired lines. Taco Bell and KFC have also leaned on anime for Nacho Fries and a video game.

McDonald’s leans into anime with ‘WcDonald’s’ campaign

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