McDonald's: Madness

McDonalds take a shot at the crazy excesses of contemporary coffee culture in a new spot for their McCafe line of drinks.

In Madness, the fast food brand take a harpoon at what they call hipsters and their coffee habits, contrasting their overpriced, obscure coffees in bizarre receptacles and oddly inspirational Wi-Fi passwords with the simple, affordable coffees available at your local Maccy Ds.

In a selection of vignettes, the ad, directed by Tony Barry of Knucklehead for Leo Burnett, shows ‘ordinary’ customers struggling with gigantic coffee menus, being served it in three chemistry beakers, and finding ping-tables where there should be regular ones. After dozen-or-so of these, the customer finds McDonald’s, a place where he is safe from what Leo Burnett’s creative director Matt Lee calls ‘artisanal Amazonian blend, served with a rumour of yak’s milk in a reclaimed jam jar.’ (shot’s offices are in East London, so we can tell you that that is a real drink, and it’s actually pretty good.)

Debuting on TV, radio, and online on February 17, the campaign is to run until March 26, after which time presumably we all will have learned the error of our ways and every quirky café in the UK will have shut its doors.