Kids Say the Funniest Things This Chinese New Year

THE CHALLENGE:
A familiar favourite, McDonald’s is set to bring on its Prosperity Burgers and Twister Fries for the 11th year running. To break through the clutter, we knew we had to go beyond the familiar product bundle to become the talking point in every family. After all, all we want to do is to make you smile this holiday season.

THE INSIGHT:
Every child loves receiving red packets – the bigger, the better! But first, he needs to earn it by impressing his elders with suitably ‘appropriate’ greetings. Of course…some children are more imaginative than others.

THE IDEA & EXECUTION:
We take that familiar greeting ???? (nian nian you yu, which means ‘Every year with abundance’) and see how imaginative a child can get in spinning the sequels. In Mandarin, the word ‘yu’ has a double meaning of ‘abundance’ and also ‘fish’.

Giving the greeting a fresh and humorous spin, the spot tells a story of a boy who makes his family laugh by going and spouting the extraordinary. He out-does his peers by literally redefining the lexicon for ‘abundance’, with as many kinds of fishes in the sea as you can imagine. Children bring on the greatest joy in a family reunion. True prosperity stems from a happy family.

THE RESULTS:
Prosperity Burger and Twister Fries are on a best-selling streak, and that’s even before Lunar New Year starting next week.

More importantly, our campaign has created a catchphrase in the market, as kids and grannies parrot-phrase the lines in the filmlet.

From McDonald’s: Here’s wishing you a year of abundance, as many as the myriad of fishes in the sea – goldfish, stingray, mermaids, octopus and even umbrellas in the new year! (Ask a child if you need some help in translating these rather auspicious even if unusual terms).