AUNZ Work of the Week: Wieden+Kennedy Sydney and McDonald’s Australia

While the northern hemisphere bundles up for a white Christmas, Australia is gearing up for a sunshine-drenched holiday season, complete with barbecues, long days, and now a famous, green grump.

McDonald’s Australia and Wieden+Kennedy Sydney have unleashed the Grinch on an unsuspecting Aussie summer, casting the classic Christmas villain in a new role: as the ultimate foil to the nation's sun-soaked festivities.

The campaign’s attention to detail is impressive, with brilliant, suspenseful music carrying the mood, the witty twist on the McDonald’s slogan, the clever rhyming homage to Dr. Seuss, and production value.

Leaning into the tale of the Grinch for a Christmas campaign might seem like a risky idea to some, but McDonald’s has nailed it with the Grinch’s attempts to ruin the holiday including hijacking a frozen drink to turn green, and a doom ‘n gloom play-on-words of McDonald’s classic brand slogan ‘I’m Lovin It’, to ‘I’m Ruinin’ It’.

It’s this coherent brand integration into a timeless Christmas tale that makes this ad so impressive. The clever but subtle association of Maccas as intrinsic to Australian culture allows the brand to align itself with the Aussie tradition of visiting the beach at Christmas.