McDonald's · Leo UK · April 2026
McDonald's UK launched McCrispy. Betray Your Go-To. a campaign that targets a specific consumer behaviour: once people find their McDonald's order, they repeat it without thinking. The ad campaign show a customer on the verge of placing their usual order — then the crunch of the McCrispy cuts in, and the decision changes. OOH and flyposting specials carry the same framing nationwide: oversized typography, plain product shot, direct instruction to switch. Creator-led microdramas on social extend the territory from May. CRM and in-restaurant nudges push the campaign all the way to the till.
The Tactics Behind The Work
Leo UK may not have briefed these ideas in these terms. But the tactics below are repeatable patterns — each one used across hundreds of campaigns — that describe the same strategic logic this work is built on.
1. Autopilot Disruption
This tactic identifies a behaviour people perform without thinking — and makes the unconscious visible. The fixed McDonald's order is a textbook familiar ritual placed on autopilot: repeated, unexamined, emotionally entrenched. The campaign's job is not to replace the behaviour but to interrupt it just long enough for a new choice to enter. Betray your go-to gives the consumer agency and a story to tell about themselves, rather than instructions to follow.
2. Shift Category
Despite being one of the UK's largest chicken sellers, McDonald's does not own chicken in the consumer's mind. This campaign is explicitly in the business of reframing that. Shift Category works by repositioning the brand inside a category it already plays in but doesn't lead — using a single product as the entry point. The McCrispy is the proof of claim. The expanded range — Spicy, Cheese and Bacon — is the signal that this isn't limited to one product.
3. Platform Building
Most campaigns are built to land. This one is built to last. Platform Building is the tactic of designing creative work so each piece reinforces the same position rather than just refreshing awareness. The McCrispy isn't being advertised here; it's being installed. Creator-led microdramas, an esports partnership, an explicit "nation's go-to" framing — none of it is decorative. The question Platform Building always asks is: does this work compound, or does it just run?
How Could You Have Got Here?
These are the questions that could have helped you arrive at this idea.
— What is the habitual behaviour that keeps our product out of consideration — and can we name it in a way that makes the consumer feel the absurdity of it?
— If our customer is on autopilot, what is the one sensory or narrative interruption that could break the loop at the point of decision?
— What does it feel like to make the switch to us? Is there a small drama in that moment worth dramatising?
— Can we get to the moment of ordering — not just the moment of awareness — and what does that change about the media plan?
Want Your AI to Think Like This?
Questions like these are part of our prompt packs, which interrogate a brief from every angle, and are included in a paid membership on this platform. Upload them to Claude — or whichever AI you use — and start generating genuinely interesting creative territories on your next brief in minutes.
