University of Houston Student Poster Prank

Two University of Houston students created a fake McDonald’s poster and stealthily installed it in a local restaurant. Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo wanted to spark conversation about inclusion of Asian models in advertising. The Filipino-American students, who are frequent diners at McDonald’s, produced on-brand lifestyle creative and launched a viral campaign that was picked up local, regional, and national media.

Photo_Christian+Toledo+and+Jehv+Maravilla+with+McDonald’s+owner+operator+Mariselle+Quijano+in+front+of+their+poster+at+McDonald’s_Courtesy+of+McDonald

The Challenge

Maravilla’s Twitter post explaining that the rogue poster had been up for 51 days went on generate 1+ million likes and 253,000 retweets. The students also posted a YouTube video that gained more than 1.4 million views. The story was picked up media, including Ellen DeGeneres.
McDonald’s corporate partnered with DeGeneres to surprise the students each with a $25,000 check, with a commitment to use them in a future creative. Our public relations team collaborated, strategized and deployed an on-the-ground plan to engage local stakeholders, community partners, and the Houston McDonald’s corporate team to respond genuinely.

CAMPAIGN GOALS

20+ positive placements in local Houston media
Establish the brand as responsive to consumer feedback and community concerns
Reinforce brand values of inclusiveness, progressiveness, and local Integration

The CKP Approach

We developed a media training approach to help the local owner/operator positively portray McDonald’s. The narrative focused on congratulating the students for their creativity and sense of social responsibility while making a connection to McDonald’s brand values of family, inclusivity and diversity. CKP coordinated visits to the restaurant with the students to stage b-roll and photo shoots to include visuals of the students signing the poster, and with McDonald’s crew and staff.

To entice local media, CKP first concentrated on the celebrity story of Ellen DeGeneres, then used the results of those placements to follow-up about the ensuing national marketing campaign that included a concept developed by the students.

Crisis Communications

Media training

Community Relations

Grassroots community engagement plan

Media Relations

Media relations and influencer relations

Content Marketing

Content marketing support

Creative Services

Photography and video assets

Meaningful Results

The story was widely covered by national and local media, including niche publications for marketing and advertising. The overwhelmingly positive message focused on McDonald’s openness and willingness to dialogue with the students about their purpose behind the prank: to raise awareness about racial inclusivity in marketing and advertising.

Video Storytelling

Awards

American Marketing Association HoustonCrisis Communications

Public Relations Society of America HoustonCrisis Communications and Issues Management

Highlights and Objectives

Media Placements

Media Impressions

Publicity Value

What Our Clients Say

CKP provides crucial support to Da Camera in the areas of media relations, content marketing, advertising and social media, allowing us to make dramatic forward strides in those areas. It’s invaluable to our organization to be able to draw on the deep expertise of the CKP team. CKP is always responsive and focused on our needs.

Leo Boucher

Da Camera – Chamber Music and Jazz, Director of Marketing and Audience Development

I cannot highly enough recommend CKP when it comes to PR. I thought I knew and understood PR until I started working with the brilliant minds at CKP. They look at PR differently than many of the bigger firms- more of a 21st-century approach to public relations, then the traditional way people view and use PR. They are a well-rounded group, who not only understood our business but also understood our needs better than we did, which is why our brand presence and perception have never been higher since we hired CKP. On top of the great work they do, they are a great group of people, with high integrity and work ethic. It is apparent they believe in what they do, they believe in their clients and it shows.

Matthew Kades

McDonald's Owner/Operators Association of Greater Houston, President

CKP makes my job easier because their integrated services create efficiencies, they produce quality work, and I trust them. I don’t have to worry about quality with CKP because they listen from the beginning, so I trust work is going to get done and get done well. While MassChallenge was building the plane while flying it, CKP’s flexibility and nimbleness helped us exceed our goals.