Also try:
- McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure
It's been playing on countless McDonald commercials around the world. But who wrote this jingle that has proven to be hard to answer as many thought it was Pharrell Williams and Justin Timberlake since the slogan was based on one of their songs titled "I'm Lovin It".
In 2016, Pusha T said in an interview that he was the one wrote for the jingle. Then the German agency responsible for the campaign refuted his claim.
Let's take it back to the beginning
In 2003, for the first time in 37 years McDonald's stock was falling so they needed an ad campaign to boost stock.
After holding a campaign with 14 different agencies the German won the bid with the campaign "Ich Liebe Es" (also known as I'm Lovin' It") and were also the ones that crafted the five syllables ba-da-ba-ba-ba but then McDonald realised there was a huge issue.
Music was suppose to be part of their campaign and they had find a way to turn those syllables into music. They got Butch Stewart who made multiple McDonald jingles in the past and over.
Butch collaborates with his son on the jingle for McDonald together they start writing and if the McDonald executives could see the musical approach going then the campaign would get the greenlight and if not the campaign would be scrapped.
After weeks of writing the catchy jingle Butch presented the concept to McDonald of which they approved that it was used for their global campaign.
They wanted to bring their slogan into culture so they hired a filmmaker producer who could write a song around the words "I'm Lovin' It", entered Pharrell Williams.
The plan was to disguise the slogan into a catchy pop song and not to reveal the McDonald connection until much later when the song has been released to radio.
In order to make I'm Lovin It a massive success they needed a massive star to sing the manufactured hit enters Justin Timberlake.
They offered him $6 million dollars to record the track and he even used it as a setlist to one of his concerts for Justified and goes on radio as if it was an official single for the pop star.
For a song about hamburgers, it managed to top the 100 in the United States and hit #1 in Belgium. A month later, McDonald announced they'll use the song for the ad campaign. They take the hook and mix it with a rap song from Pusha T.
Who managed what?
1. Slogan and Signature Sound was handley by a German Ad Agency
2. Ad campaign was brought to life by Butch Stewart
3. Pharrell Williams wrote Justin Timberlake's single that went to radio.
4. The first global ad campaign was Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake and Pusha T.
How do they crew feel about it?
Justin has expressed regret for the deal while Pusha has no problems with the deal. McDonald's stock price was valued at $12 before 2003 and now it's over $150 and the slogan has become the longest campaign ever used by them.
