McDonald's India uses 'Newton-level' math to bring prices down to earth

McDonald's India (West and South), which is owned and operated by Westlife Foodworld, has teamed up with its creative agency DDB Mudra to launch a new campaign involving some perplexing math for its McSavers+ menu.

The campaign, which adds a 65-rupee Chicken Surprise burger with a 49-rupee classic Coke float for the combined price of INR 69, draws attention to the math mismatch with the tagline 'It Doesn’t Add Up.'

The TVC depicts two confused Gen Z customers musing over the pricing. One ultimately decides the math is on a level so challenging that even Isaac Newton might be stumped. It then cuts to a scene depicting Newton under a tree, hit on the head by a falling chicken burger, moments before the fabled apple drops that might teach him the law of gravity. 

“Value has become such an overused word and a blind spot in the retail world. We needed a new way to communicate the same to our Gen Z audience," says DDB Mudra's chief creative officer, Rahul Mathew. "And so we decided to take them through the math (or the lack of it) in our offers. And who better to take them through it than someone who probably scored A++++ in his math class than Issac Newton.”

Campaign's Take: This is a fun campaign that deftly draws attention to just how much value the McSavers+ combos are giving customers. Adding Sir Isaac Newton is a bit of a stretch as its not really clear what 'Newton-level' math means and why such math wouldn't add up. This could have been clarified in an entertaining way. If bringing in Newton was really important it would have been fun to play with the themes of gravity and bringing prices down to earth. The McSavers+ menu might answer the old axiom of 'what goes up... by adding additional items...must come down' according to the laws of McSavers+ Newton-level math. 

Credits

Agency: DDB Mudra
Creative: Rahul Mathew, Arcot Rahul, Gagandeep Bindra, David Vaz, Shalmali Sawant, Dhiren Sonawane, Ronak Ramraje, Mustafa Bakri, Anushka Vibhandik, Vidushi Gupta, Koustubh Garud, Vasudev Raut
Strategy: Aditi Hariharan, Vidisha Jain
Business: Delon Mascarenhas, Sonia Kumar, Barkha Bisht, Sushant Kandu
Agency Producer: Jay Gaikwad