McDonald’s Denmark Spotlights Getting Your First Job in Fictional Web Series

McDonald’s Denmark has launched a new youth series, “Everything changes”, which spotlights the fact that a job at the country's leading burger chain offers more than you might think.

In the six-episode web series, McDonald's portrays how everything changes when you are young and get your first job, and how education, teamwork and responsibility are all on the menu at McDonald's.

With 8,000 employees spread over more than 100 restaurants, McDonald's is one of Denmark's largest youth employers, and with an average age of 19, McDonald's is the first encounter with working life for many young people.

In the series, viewers meet the newly hired Freja, played by famous Danish actress and influencer Anna Munch, and the manager Jonathan, played by actor Oliver Michelsen. Freja tries to juggle a life with both family life, leisure interests and dreams for the future, while the manager Jonathan, despite being only 22 years old, already has a long career behind him and is an experienced manager. The meeting between the two turns things upside down, and suddenly the future looks different than they originally thought.

View the six-episode YouTube series here.

“We’ve never done anything like this before” said Thomas Johansen, head of marketing Denmark, McDonald’s Denmark.

The campaign aims to capture a younger target group in a new way. "In close collaboration with Nord DDB, we created a fictional YouTube series, which is the go-to place for young Danes to watch authentic fictional content. Through interviews with our employees, we uncovered what matters to young people and what they encounter at McDonald's. To make it resonate with the audience, we worked with talented screenwriters to make the vibe feel young, relevant and entertaining.” said Thomas Johansen.

"With the series Everything Changes, we want to show that a job at McDonald's is more than "just" burgers and fries. We have a strong focus on developing our employees and annually train more than 1,100 employees on internal and external training and courses. With the series, we try to do away with the prejudices that unfortunately prevail about working at McDonald's. For some, the job is a good start to working life, while for others it is the start of a long career, and we want to show that," said Thomas Johansen.

“We remember how crazy life was when we were that age” said creatives Emma Søgaard and Chris Vejlø, NORD DDB CPH. “You have dreams and aspirations, but also want to have fun. Your plans change and suddenly, you end up with a totally different life than you thought you would and that truth is what we wanted to portray”.

At the agency Nord DDB, they are delighted with the result:

"It was precisely the relevance that was important to us. We spent a lot of time writing the script and casted actors that no parents know, but who every person under 20 knows from similar series and their social channels. Hopefully the target group will be entertained, while gaining an understanding of the development you go through when you get your first job. And especially at McD, who does so much for the employees.” said Tim Fremmich Andresen, creative director at NORD DDB.

The series is written by director Anna Sørrig and scriptwriter Lasse Dein. The title track for the series was written and produced by Universal artists Salomon Stampe and Lasse Dein.

All six episodes can be seen on the McDonald's Denmark’s YouTube channel.

The campaign is the second instalment of a youth employer focus. In 2020 the brand offered the mom of an employee the chance to prove that working at McDonald’s is easy, which it wasn’t.