McWorld - a Surreptitious McDonalds Fast Food Ad. Aimed at Children?

Have you ever heard of proxy advertising? This is where a company that deals in a product that is illegal to advertise, finds roundabout ways of advertising it anyway. For instance, in India, where it is illegal to advertise alcohol and tobacco, manufacturers get around the law by trying to design and sell a product whose packaging looks exactly like the alcohol or tobacco they would rather advertise. For instance, if they wish to advertise whiskey, they'll do it by manufacturing and advertising a line of mineral water with packaging that looks identical to the whiskey; they even call the water almost the same thing. And instead of advertising to cigarettes tobacco, they'll advertise packs of playing cards that are made to look like packs of cigarettes. Fast food is perfectly legal to advertise; but to directly advertise unhealthy food to children doesn't get very far with parents these days. So, the McDonalds fast food company has found itself in a position where it needs to advertise itself without actually appearing to advertise itself. That's where the McWorld website comes in.

By itself, McWorld happens to be quite an entertaining place for children. As a child, you get to make your own imaginary characters, you get to go on treasure hunts in a virtual landscape, and so on. And in a surprising show of restraint for a company that doesn't hesitate to stoop to advertising its products even in schools there isn't a single mention of buying any McDonalds fast food menu items.

What they're doing has been well tried and tested; they're trying to build a kind of fun place where children can have fun and learn to associate fun with the McDonald's name. The hope is that children who play at McWorld will naturally make the mental leap of associating fun at McWorld with fun eating at the parent company's restaurants.

You've heard of product placement advertising; you'd heard of proxy advertising; this thing McDonald's is trying out is the latest thing and it has its own snazzy name as well - it's called engagement marketing. It's about engaging the interest of an audience in the company name without necessarily getting them interested in the company's products. The final joining up of the dots is something the audience is supposed to on its own.

Now while McWorld doesn't try to directly tell children how delicious McDonalds fast food is, they do engage in quite a bit of indirect pressure. For lots of fun activities on the website, a child needs to have codes that are only to be found on Happy Meals. They may not actually ask you to go out and buy stuff; but if you want to have fun, the message is clear.

McDonald's, of course, feels that they are doing nothing wrong. They're just trying to get children to like them. What could be wrong with that?