Sometimes, the smartest thing a brand can do is recognize an idea people are already having fun with and give everyone else a reason to participate.
McDonald’s Costa Rica has introduced Fryceratops, an edible dinosaur made entirely from Chicken McNuggets and fries. The idea is wonderfully ridiculous, ridiculously easy to reproduce and, perhaps most interestingly, it wasn’t McDonald’s idea in the first place.
The brand spotted an emerging social media trend and turned it into an official campaign that invites families to play with their food.
From Internet Trend To McDonald’s Campaign
Earlier this year, social media users in South Korea and other countries began sharing photographs of dinosaurs assembled from chicken nuggets and french fries. The creations ranged from recognizable prehistoric creatures to considerably more imaginative interpretations.
Rather than simply reposting the trend or using it as inspiration for another advertisement, McDonald’s Costa Rica decided to make participation easier.
Its new campaign, “Jugá con la comida” (Play With Your Food), provides an illustrated tutorial explaining how to build a Fryceratops from two Chicken McNuggets and nine fries.
One nugget becomes the dinosaur’s body, supported by four short pieces of fries serving as legs. Another fry becomes the tail, while part of a second nugget forms the head. Add three horns, and suddenly your lunch looks suspiciously prehistoric.
The instructions recommend adult supervision during assembly. Presumably, parents are also responsible for preventing the dinosaur from disappearing before anyone gets a photograph.
The Happy Meal Becomes The Activity
The campaign accompanies McDonald’s Costa Rica’s Children’s Month promotion, running from September 8 through October 5.
During the promotional period, eligible Cajita Feliz meals, the local version of the Happy Meal, include two toys rather than one. Customers receive a toy from the current collection alongside another from a previous collection, subject to the offer’s conditions.
The Fryceratops adds another dimension to that experience without introducing another physical product.
Instead of entertainment arriving exclusively inside the Happy Meal box, McDonald’s encourages families to create something with the food itself. The activity also produces exactly the kind of visual content people might naturally photograph and share.
The meal becomes the medium, the activity and potentially the social content.
The Internet Already Did The Creative Work
What makes this campaign interesting is where the idea originated.
McDonald’s did not commission a creative team to invent an imaginary dinosaur made from its products. Internet users were already doing that, sharing their creations and exploring variations on the concept.
The brand simply recognized something worth amplifying.
By developing an accessible tutorial and connecting it to an existing promotion, McDonald’s has made the behavior easier to understand and reproduce. It has given an emerging trend a name, a recognizable execution and a reason for more people to participate.
It’s an approach we have seen from the brand before.
Earlier this year, McDonald’s New Zealand turned a viral joke about adding cheese to a burger to resemble a mullet into the McMullet. The idea eventually became a real promotional product, supported by an in-store activation that rewarded customers sporting the hairstyle.
Similarly, McDonald’s Camera Rolls campaign was built around an existing social behavior: people documenting their nights out, often ending with a photograph of a late-night McDonald’s visit.
Across these campaigns, McDonald’s is finding creative opportunities in things people already do with, or around, its products.
Sometimes The Best Creative Idea Is Already Out There
Brands spend considerable resources trying to manufacture cultural relevance, frequently attempting to create the next viral moment from scratch.
Fryceratops demonstrates another possibility: pay attention to what people are already creating.
There is no expensive celebrity partnership, complicated technological activation or limited-edition product here. The ingredients are already on the menu, and the creative behavior already exists online.
McDonald’s contribution is making that behavior accessible to a much wider audience and giving it an official place within the brand experience.
Of course, there is no guarantee that turning an internet trend into a branded activity will generate significant participation. That ultimately depends on whether people find the idea entertaining enough to recreate.
But the creative approach is worth paying attention to.
The internet invented a dinosaur out of nuggets and fries. McDonald’s turned it into an activity for its customers.
Sometimes, participating in culture starts with recognizing that your customers got there first.
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