日本マクドナルド | スマイルあげない | 2024
The Courage to Break the "0 Yen Smile" / McDonald's Japan "I Won't Give You a Smile"
McDonald's broke its own 50-year-old promise of a "0 Yen Smile," all by itself. "I Won't Give You a Smile," sung by ano, was a recruitment campaign on the surface, but underneath it was a declaration of resolve.
The problem
About six in ten of the crew supporting roughly 2,900 stores nationwide are Gen Z. With chronic staff shortages from the falling birthrate, the "0 Yen Smile" had come to look like "forced smiling" to young people, and it was becoming a barrier to hiring. Social media was flooded with videos using the phrase as a joke.
The insight
Japan, a country known for hospitality, was also a country that forced people to smile. The very culture of the "0 Yen Smile," which McDonald's itself had built over 50 years, was what was making young people suffer. So they realized that breaking their biggest asset with their own hands would be the strongest message they could send.
The idea
They brought in ano, known as the "idol who doesn't smile." Drawing on her own experience of quitting a part-time job after being told she didn't smile enough, they created the song "I Won't Give You a Smile." Kenmochi Hidefumi handled the music and director Sunao Watanabe made the music video. They played it as background music in about 3,000 stores nationwide, turning the restaurants into live venues. They also changed their hiring policy from "Work with your smile" to "Work with your style." It wasn't just the words that changed — the whole system was rewritten.
What happened
The music video was viewed 36 million times in three months. Applications rose to 115% of the previous year, including an increase of 5,000 new graduate hires, and new hires reached 100,000, the most in McDonald's history. At Cannes Lions 2024, it won the Gold Lion in Social & Influencer, along with many other awards.
Afterthought
Breaking a legacy is terrifying. But without breaking it, there was no future. CMO Fusako Tsuneiden said it "took quite a lot of courage." Being able to work in a world where you don't have to force a smile — that alone is enough.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2024
