By the numbers
27
media placements
56M
media impressions
Client background
Two University of Houston students, Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo, made a fake McDonald’s poster and installed it in a local restaurant. The Filipino-American students, regular McDonald’s customers, wanted to spark a conversation about Asian representation in advertising.
The challenge
The poster hung for 51 days before anyone noticed. Maravilla’s tweet explaining the prank drew over 1 million likes and 253,000 retweets. A YouTube video the students posted gained more than 1.4 million views. Ellen DeGeneres picked up the story. McDonald’s corporate partnered with her to surprise each student with a $25,000 check and a commitment to use their concept in a future campaign.
CKP’s team had to respond fast. We built an on-the-ground plan to engage local stakeholders, community partners, and the Houston McDonald’s corporate team, aiming for:
- 20+ positive placements in local Houston media.
- A brand seen as responsive to consumer feedback.
- Reinforced brand values around inclusiveness, progressiveness, and local integration.
The CKP approach
We media-trained the local owner/operator to speak to the moment. The message stayed simple: congratulate the students for their creativity and social responsibility, and connect that spirit to McDonald’s values of family, inclusivity, and diversity.
We coordinated restaurant visits with the students, staging b-roll and photos of them signing the poster alongside McDonald’s crew. To draw local media, we led with the Ellen DeGeneres angle first. Once those placements ran, we followed up on the national marketing campaign built from the students’ own concept.
What we delivered
- Crisis communications and media training
- Community relations and grassroots engagement
- Media and influencer relations
- Content marketing support
- Photography and video production
Results
National and local outlets covered the story, including trade press for marketing and advertising. Coverage centered on McDonald’s willingness to engage directly with the students about their goal: raising awareness of racial inclusivity in advertising. The campaign earned recognition from both AMA Houston and PRSA Houston for crisis communications work.
