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Big Orange Slide

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Sticking feathers up your [expletive] does not make you a chicken

August 19, 2010 by Sara Vinten

Illustration by Colin Craig

No. This post isn’t a self-righteous rant about animal rights, or a collection of the best movie quotes ever written. It’s about how changing the outside of something doesn’t necessarily change what it really is. It’s about how people are all too often fooled by the illusion of change. It’s also about french fries!

Why? Because McDonald’s has been busy completely overhauling their exterior image and it’s definitely worth a chat.

To anyone who’s caught a glimpse of the golden arches lately, it’s pretty clear they’re targeting young urban hipsters with their flashy new exteriors and trendy interior design.

McDonald’s has always targeted youth, but in the past they didn’t have to be so obvious about it. Throw in a new happy meal toy and send Ronald around for the occasional visit and everyone’s happy. Now, despite the flashy new look and heavy advertising, little else has changed. It all looks like they’re trying to do too much with too little.

And McDonald’s isn’t alone. There was an article in Marketing Mag this week discussing the new look that A&W just unveiled. The difference being that A&W actually innovated their offering to match, adding several healthier menu options, built-in self-serve ordering kiosks, and a few green initiatives.

Does an external redesign have a better chance of being successful when the product is updated as well? Or, is rebranding on a superficial level only a token move to keep people interested?

On the other hand, I’d argue that total overhaul also carries its share of risks: would *you* want to be the guy to tell people that McD’s french fries don’t have that meta-potato taste anymore?

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