The Big Mac Mind Tests
- Brand
- McDonald's
- Year
- 2014
- Objective
- Awareness
- Industry
- Food & Drink
- Mechanic
- Quiz & Trivia
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Goodboy Digital
- With
- Razorfish
Objective
McDonald's UK's younger audience had no emotional connection to the Big Mac, and a straight ad wasn't going to build one. So the brand handed the proof over to the audience itself, turning principles of psychology, perception and math into interactive tests that let each visitor discover their own pull toward the product rather than being told about it.
Solution
Landing on the promo page, visitors are invited to put their own mind up against the Big Mac, opening into a full-screen experience built around video and sound. From there they work through a series of short mind tests grounded in psychology, perception and quick reasoning, answering and reacting on screen as each one plays out. A set of accompanying games lets them keep testing themselves in different ways. By the end, no one has been told the Big Mac is hard to resist — each visitor has just watched their own attention slip and drawn that conclusion on their own.
- 1
The player lands on a full-screen McDonald's UK promo page that opens with video and sound, posing a challenge: stay focused and resist the pull of a Big Mac. It invites the player to begin a series of "mind tests."
- 2
Each mind test asks the player to track a specific detail in a short video clip while a Big Mac appears on screen as a deliberate distraction; at the end of the clip the site reveals exactly what the player missed while watching it.
- 3
The tests are built around a real street experiment: a couple asks a passer-by to take their photo, and just as the passer-by lines up the shot, a giant Big Mac poster is carried past and briefly blocks the view. Behind the poster the couple is swapped for two different people in different clothes, and the passer-by photographs the substitutes without noticing.
- 4
The clip then reveals the switch, showing the photographer — and the player — exactly what changed while their eyes were on the Big Mac.
