Álvar Suñol of Alma: With the new McDonald’s spot we bring back the brand’s own way of talking

In an attempt to bring back the pride of being part of the McDonald’s family, the brand debuted First Customer, a spot created by the Hispanic agency Alma. The launch took place during the broadcast of the Oscars, a wow beginning for a spot that would give a lot to talk about.“Our briefing was to develop a commercial highlighting the pride of being part of the McDonald’s family. Ads have impact when they’re based on truth, in this case on the social truth reflected in the spot,” Alvar Suñol, senior VP and executive creative director of Alma, told PRODU. For his part, Luis Miguel Messianu, president and CCO of Alma, believes the commercial’s merit lies in bringing back the brand’s magic and pride through a universal truth. “Not only is the concept just right but it is brought to life by the casting, the acting, plus it has a lot of subtexts that makes it look more like a slice of real life than a commercial,” Messianu said. “This execution is an example of how multicultural agencies apply the total market concept. I very much doubt that any purely general market agency could have created this commercial since these are truths we see as Latinos, and we know our viewers will recognize them,” he said.For Suñol, another important point to note about the spot is that it restores the brand’s tone of voice. “With this commercial, McDonald’s has in some way recovered its way of talking that it had lost in recent years: the very emotional storytelling, the stories with insights that engage people,” he said.