McDonald’s has embraced the retro, and not just because we’re all suddenly interested in what Grimace is up to again.
It’s all part of the tie-in with Marvel’s “Loki” series, which included a new meal deal and branded sauce packaging.
But, since the show focuses on time travel, one restaurant in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, turned the clocks back to 1982, just as it had on the show, complete with new seating, printed wallpaper, and more, to make it look like it had 40 years ago (as well as on the show).
Part of the job was tasked to “Mcdonald’s historian” Mike Bullington, who worked with Marvel to make sure the retro restaurant was accurate. Bullington told CNBC that work entailed attention to the smallest details. The walls were decorated with posters featuring the food as it looked back then, and the crew uniforms were recreated with the red-and-white stripe pattern and white paper hats.
You can take a look at the full McDonald’s overhaul below:
This sort of restaurant takeover is becoming very common in fast food, as franchises need to find ways to not only one-up each other, but really showcase the brands they partner with. When a fast food chain lands a partnership with something as popular as a Marvel show, “Rick and Morty,” or “Ted Lasso,” they can’t go half way with it. They need to go all in.
And the attention to detail is something distributors can keep in mind with all of their promotional campaigns. No detail was overlooked in this campaign, down to the smallest corners of the restaurant. Even if you’re not doing a large-scale event takeover or immersive display, a distributor needs to think about how branding can fit into every square centimeter of an item, or at least how the whole item can contribute to telling the brand’s story.
