I’ll buy that for a dollar

Fast food takes to the road

McDonald’s kick started the New Year with a series of hip hop inspired commercials as part of a musical campaign in support of its Breakfast Dollar Menu. In its latest bid to woo the urban consumer the fast food chain has partnered with ‘Dollar Van Demos‘ to showcase talented musicians, rappers and comedians performing inside a dollar van (a shared taxi).The promotion enabled New York rappers to record specially composed promotional McDonald’s raps inside the vehicle – complete with an audience of real passengers. Joya Bravo, a songwriter, singer and violinist, supports the campaign as does New York rapper Wordspit. “Instead of getting the average ride, they’ll get someone performing, and it’s like a little live concert on the bus,” said Bravo,  “so a lot of times people don’t know what to make of it, but they always love it because it’s something different, it’s unexpected”.

The series of ads have been in rotation across prime time slots in the US (during Sunday NFL games for example).This in itself is not new ground for the brand which has been attempting to connect with an urban audience for some time. Take for example its 2008 free 10-city tour in the US, which served up exclusive performances from Ne-Yo, Kenna and Kat DeLuna in actual McDonald’s parking lots.  The campaign also invited fans to crowd-source lyrics for Ne-Yo’s latest track.

The ‘Dollar Van Demos’ is strikingly similar to the UK’s ‘Black Cab Sessions‘, where musicians – or indeed whole bands – perform in the back of a moving black cab. Artists such as Little Boots, Speech Debelle, VV Brown and Grizzly Bear have all taken part.

There are some risqué lyrics for McDonald’s family audience in Joya Bravo’s other Dollar Van songs, which are spread across YouTube. However, this has not put the brand off utilising the singer in a more controlled environment.  Despite the fact this campaign was something of a given bearing in mind the link between ‘Dollar Van’ and ‘Dollar Menu’ McDonald’s deserves kudos for enabling the two artists to have a certain level of creative freedom. “They actually allowed me to pick my beat,” said Wordspit – even if it was only out of five predetermined beats. Either way this campaign highlights just how much music marketing has changed and how far the brand’s commercials have come since this classic McDonalds rap video.

The one small downside – but presumably one that few will notice – is that Joya Bravo can be seen here buying food (an Angry Whopper no less) at Burger King in a YouTube video from August 2009. Presumably she only goes there for lunch though.