McDonald's MY showcases competitors' hero products on social to show unity

McDonald's Malaysia is reminding consumers to practice social distancing and stay at home during the two-week Movement Control Order (MCO) period via witty illustrations on Facebook. Done in collaboration with Leo Burnett, the first illustration address the topic of social distancing and features its competitors - A&W, Domino's Pizza, KFC and Burger King.

The fast food chain is putting aside difference during a trying time like this to rally Malaysians to stay strong and unite in the fight against COVID-19. "Although we cannot be close to each other, we can stand together! Whatever the challenge, when Malaysians unite as one, #KitaBoleh!" the post said.

VP and CMO of McDonald's Malaysia, Melati Abdul Hai, told A+M that it plans to publish such posts daily for the rest of the MCO period until 31 March. "The is our aim but we will remain sensitive to the current situation at hand and what would help Malaysia fight this pandemic," she added.

According to Melati, Malaysians have been feeling stressed, anxious and fearful ever since the implementation of the MCO. "The rakyat is bombarded with a lot of 'tak boleh' - of course, all in good light and with the right intention of keeping us all safe. More importantly, keeping COVID-19 from spreading even further," she said.

Hence, McDonald's Malaysia wanted to engage consumers through positivity. "We leverage on the spirit of rakyat Malaysia and wanted to rally and to remind Malaysians to be united, to keep the fighting spirit and that together, #KitaBoleh overcome anything," she said. Melati added that #KitaBoleh also an apt rally cry to uplift and support not only its employees, riders and managers across all McDonald's restaurants, but also all the frontliners including the doctors, nurses, medical personnel, police and the army.

"With everything that was going around and listening to the rakyat, it did not take us long to come up with this. #KitaBoleh was just apt. Of course, at the centre of it is the feel-good impact of the McDonald’s brand," Melati explained.

In response, Domino's Pizza and Burger King also agreed that together, Malaysians can get through this. Meanwhile, Marrybrown Malaysia teased McDonald's for leaving the brand out of the post. "Okay, it seems we stood a little too far away and got cropped from the group picture but yes, kita sentiasa berjuang bersama," it cheekily said. Separately, one netizen commented: *Pizza Hut has left the group*, while another said the post was touching and it showed that brands are still able to put aside their competitive spirit and unite in the face of a global crisis. McDonald's Facebook post had 7.1k reactions and reached more than two million Facebook users at the time of writing.

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