Triggering Nostalgia: The Creatives Behind McDonald's UK's 50th Birthday Artwork

Having a 50th birthday party in the spirit of a children’s party feels appropriate, and for the world’s largest quick service restaurant chain, McDonald’s UK that is even more so as it has been hosting millions of them for decades now.

The brand opened its first restaurant in the UK in October at a location in Woolwich. It has since grown to over 1,270 locations and employs over 120,000 people across the nation.

And as one of the world’s most prolific marketers, of course, it has released a campaign to mark the occasion, created by long-standing agency Leo Burnett. A side element of the activation includes the nice touch of designing posters that resemble children’s birthday invitations as an extra way of communicating the moment to customers and perhaps triggering a moment of nostalgia.

The four illustrations feature familiar characters from the history of McDonald’s; Hamburglar, Officer Big Mac, Birdie the Early Bird and Grimace among others.

We spoke with the illustrators behind the invitations; senior creative Alice Pearce and illustrator Sofie Birkin, to hear about the design of the posters and how they were created to elicit an emotional response from British consumers who have been McDonald’s customers for generations now.

What was the initial brief between you both?

Alice Pearce (AP): The brief was to pay homage to the iconic McDonald's party invites of years gone by and create an instant nostalgia hit for anyone who sees them. We love Sofie's bright, poppy, playful style, so we were thrilled when they agreed to collaborate on this project!

Sofie Birkin (SB): The initial brief from McDonald's was to create a set of illustrations inspired by their vintage birthday party invitations to celebrate their 50th birthday in the UK. The aim was to evoke nostalgia while appealing to a contemporary audience. The first thing I noticed about the original invitations was that they had classic kid's party themes - space, the carnival, under the sea, etc. The common theme was they all featured beloved McDonald's characters in fun, imaginative settings. I wanted to take inspiration from that to achieve our goal of highlighting the joy and whimsy associated with childhood birthday parties at McDonald's.

What role do the posters play in the latest campaign?

AP: The posters play a key part of the campaign. They were the first piece of the campaign to launch, so they acted as our invitation to the nation to get involved with our birthday fun. We're spreading birthday joy across various touch points, including a throwback-inspired merch collection, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

SB: The posters, blown up to outsized proportions for London bus stop ads, should encourage longtime McDonald's fans and new customers to 'join in the celebration'. They serve as a nostalgic visual reminder of the brand's legacy and commitment to creating joyful experiences for families and friends.

What inspired the various themes and situations for each of the birthday cards?

AP: Every single part of the posters has been inspired by past invites. So the themes, colour choices, and type have all been referenced from invites that Sofie, the team, and I have found deep in the McDonald's archives. We've hidden lots of fun McDonald's themed easter eggs in them, which also seemed common in the invites back then.

SB:: I pulled all the vintage McDonald's source material I could find, looking at everything from invitations and placements to food packaging, toys and apparel from around the world and from the 1960s to the present. Some of the themes I kept seeing crop up were the carnival, the bucolic setting of McDonaldland space and a nautical setting. I felt like this gave us a really broad range of environments that all emphasized adventure, play, excitement and friendship. For the 50th invitation, I wanted to create a piece that unified all the characters in the spirit of a classic birthday celebration.

What was the biggest challenge you faced in producing the posters?

AP: For me, the biggest challenge was narrowing down what to include in them, as there was so much inspiration to pull from. We knew we wanted to create a collection of invites that subtly lent into different eras, which helped the culling process (slightly). We also wanted some layouts to be super busy and full of rich, nostalgic easter eggs and others where the characters take centre stage and the environment is more recessive.

SB: It was important to me to call out various McDonald's visual eras while using one consistent style. This presented a challenge- what does 'retro' mean when you're looking across a 50-year period? I ultimately chose to call out the different eras through the typography, and for the rest, developed a distinctive style inspired by paper ephemera of the late 60s and 70s, using bold single-weight outlines, flat colour fills inspired by vintage Day-Glo inks, and classic cartoon stipple shade. This felt like the best choice to hit the target of looking vintage and nostalgic while still having modern appeal.

Why do McDonald's characters lend themselves so well to illustration?

AP: The McDonald's characters evoke such nostalgia in people, and there was something wonderfully old-school about hand-drawing them once again.

SB: McDonald's characters are iconic, instantly recognizable, and have a timeless appeal. Their distinct personalities and visual style make them versatile and engaging subjects for artistic interpretation.

And if you haven't seen it - here's the throw-back TV campaign for this campaign as well.