McWhopper (an open letter to McDonald's)

Why it works

Burger King's peace offering to its oldest enemy, made in public. On 26 August 2015, full-page ads in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune invited McDonald's to call a ceasefire in the burger wars for Peace Day, 21 September: for one day, one restaurant staffed by both companies would sell the McWhopper, a hybrid of the Big Mac and the Whopper, with proceeds going to the nonprofit Peace One Day. McDonald's did not take up the offer, but by then the idea belonged to the public. It is studied as a masterclass in using the gravitas of a newspaper page to start a conversation that then belongs to everyone else, and in putting a market leader in a position where every possible response helps the challenger. Y&R reported nearly 8.9 billion media impressions and a 40 per cent rise in awareness of Peace Day, and the campaign won two Grands Prix at Cannes in 2016, in Print & Publishing and in Media.