McDonald’s Netherlands Takes Passwords to the Streets for Change Your Password Day

​McDonald’s Netherlands and TBWA\NEBOKO launched a campaign on Change Your Password Day to raise awareness of weak and predictable passwords. On digital billboards, the brand displayed examples of surprisingly common passwords based on well-known McDonald’s product names.

The campaign is inspired by data from the website Have I Been Pwned, where consumers can check whether their email address or password appears in leaked datasets. The data shows that the password 'bigmac' has been used no fewer than 110,922 times. Other terms such as 'frenchfries' (34,407 times), 'happymeal' (17,269 times) and 'mcnuggets' (2,219 times) also appear frequently.

The campaign highlights the idea that strong passwords are rarely recognizable words, but rather combinations of letters, numbers and symbols. Through a series of minimalistic executions featuring McDonald’s products as passwords, the brand reminds fans that what is easy to remember is often also easy to guess.

According to Darre van Dijk, chief creative officer at TBWA\NEBOKO, the strength of the idea lies in making a widespread habit visible, “Many people use words that feel close to them as passwords. By literally putting McDonald’s iconic products out on the street as passwords, we show, in a light-hearted way, how familiar and therefore vulnerable, those choices can be.”

​Karin van Prooijen, senior manager marketing at McDonald’s Netherlands, added that the brand wanted to create a reminder that resonates, “Change Your Password Day is a great moment to reflect on digital safety. With this campaign, we use our most recognizable products to encourage people to think differently about their online habits.”

Cybersecurity organisations have long warned that weak or reused passwords remain a major cause of digital breaches. Change Your Password Day is an international awareness day that highlights the importance of strong passwords and updating them regularly.

In addition to digital out-of-home, online video, social media, and display banners were being used to raise awareness of password security.