Behind the Campaign that Placed McDonald’s Menu Items in the Fabric of Western Fashion

Minimalist out-of-home work may be having a moment, but McDonald’s Canada and Cossette Vancouver found a way to make it their own. Ahead of the 2025 Calgary Stampede, they launched ‘Cowboy Closeups’, a series of OOH ads that reimagined the Big Mac, World Famous Fries and Vanilla Cone as Western fashion details – a belt buckle, cowboy hat and shirt fringe.

Created as a love letter to the hard-working farmers who supply the franchise's ingredients, for senior art director Shona Massey, the campaign was all about bucking typical culinary advertising trends and truly integrating into the cultural moment.

“We didn’t want to just show up at the Stampede with pictures of juicy burgers and big price points,” she explains. “We wanted the work to feel like a genuine part of the Calgary Stampede, and we wanted to make people smile. The solution needed to be simple, clear, and relevant to both McDonald’s and the Stampede. The spark came from realising just how closely intertwined those two things really are… and when we realised the lather fringe on Western jackets kind of looks like fries.”

Blending these worlds required careful planning to ensure the idea was feasible and would be effective in market, meaning the team first spent a lot of time considering the menu items it wanted to highlight. The Big Mac and World Famous Fries were shoo-ins, according to the art director, however, the selection of Vanilla Cone took more time, and was ultimately spurred by the fact that ice cream is a summery treat – appropriate for a marketing initiative landing at an outdoor event when the weather is hot.

The decision was also made to avoid relying heavily on post-production or digital effects, with Cossette Vancouver committing to a restrained but handmade approach. Intended to make the campaign feel less like traditional advertising, and more like a part of the Stampede’s culture, this artistic decision proved the ticket in demonstrating to McDonald’s that ‘Cowboy Closeups’ would be capable of convincing event-goers to take a trip to the Golden Arches.

“McDonald’s is one of those iconic brands where you only need to show a piece of something, like a pattern or texture, and once the arches are in the corner, your audience immediately recognises it,” Shona notes. “Before we even shared anything with the client, we spent time iterating on how each menu item could be brought to life visually. That way, when it came time to present, we already had a clear sense of the overall look and components for each execution.”

With everything officially approved, photography was able to begin. While some challenges would occur in the run-up, such as “making a burger hat look just enough like a hat, but not too much like a burger”, with the help of photographer Kate Ince, all three images ultimately found the right aesthetic balance, ensuring the concept would achieve maximum impact.

“The shoot day was highly collaborative, with Kate, our team, and the client all working together to strike the right balance between food and fashion in each shot,” Shona says. “Our main goal was for people to notice the clothing first, and then recognise the food inspiration. One of the funniest moments came during the ice cream shirt shoot. When we finally got the shirt twisted to look just right, everyone suddenly got hungry and started craving ice cream!”

Quest to spontaneously find a sweet treat aside, in many ways, it would prove fairly smooth sailing from that point onwards. Right away, the initial decision to not rely on editing paid dividends, with the quality of the in-camera photography paving the way for a smooth retouching process, comprising solely clean up.

After that, it was just a matter of working with OMD to launch the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it creative, which quickly accumulated an “overwhelmingly positive” response, both from the Canadian ad industry and Stampede-goers alike. “We’re really happy that we achieved our original goal of celebrating the Stampede in a way that felt truly McDonald’s,” Shona adds.

With that said, while the success of the campaign is certainly a nice feather in the caps of the Cossette Vancouver team, what the art director is most proud of, she concludes, is the way in which everything came together seamlessly.

“We’re proud that each execution was intentionally kept simple and focused. We only included what was necessary for people to identify both the Western influence and the menu item. Nothing extra. It would have been easy to overcomplicate things, and we’re grateful to our client for believing in the work and allowing it to remain as minimal and clear as we imagined from the beginning. (Also, we still have a bunch of prototype beadwork hats around the office, along with a very loud red shirt with yellow fringe that almost everyone has tried on).”