McDonald's defends fries

McDonald's fries inspire a fiery passion amongst people who love them.

To help protect their fries, the brand and DDB developed the world's first French fry security system. Using motion detector technology and a person's smartphone camera, the "Fry Defender" alerts a person the moment a theft occurs. It lets out alarm sounds and a flashing screen, all while capturing photos of the thief. The images could then be reported on social media from the app — shaming the fry thief and preventing future thefts from occurring.

The campaign (which was promoted online, in-store and on social media) featured an introductory online video, a Tumblr page on fry thievery and social content on all McDonald's channels. The Fry Defender was developed as a fun and easy-to-use feature for the original McDonald's Canada mobile app, which provides customers with menu, nutrition and store location info.

The brand tracked a 288% lift in McDonald's Canada app downloads, over one million video views on YouTube, 80% positive social engagements and 12 million organic PR impressions from around the globe.