Greater China: Yao Ming stars in first McDonald's ad spots

Created by Leo Burnett, the entire campaign includes a 60-second thematic TVC, a 30-second spot as a cut down version and a separate 15-second TVC featuring a Big Mac promotion which will run in all restaurants. It also covers a series of in-store POPs featuring Yao Ming.

The ads will run in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, starting from June 2.

Shot in Houston and Shanghai, the ads will be shared with McDonald's global team for adaptation in local markets, and a Korea version is expected to launch in September. "The thematic TVC tells about Big Mac taste and quality equity via a Yao Ming story. The story is about Yao Ming's potential and passion in his early year, leading to his future success," said McDonald's China senior director of marketing, Shantel Wong. "It's a story about how persistence and dedication in pursuing dreams and goals can lead to the best. Big Mac is something he really likes and he reaches for it, demonstrating his passion for what he likes and his great potential in basketball. These attributes are common for Yao Ming and McD's Big Mac... reaching the best, Big Taste, Big Mac."

Ruth Lee, ECD of Burnett Shanghai, pointed out that the key challenge was to try and utilise Yao in a distinct manner from other brands.

"We tried to see if we could do something different to other brands that use Yao Ming," said Lee. "We intentionally thought small, despite the correlation in size between a Big Mac and Yao Ming." The Yao Ming campaign comes hot on the heels of the latest phase of McDonald's global 'I'm lovin' it' campaign, including one ad shot in Hong Kong.

The ad, titled 'First fries', was created by DDB's worldwide creative team, and tells the story of two sisters growing up together who share everything except their first McDonald's french fries.

Other ads include 'Boardwalk', which was created by Burnett for Australia, and describes how the world changes, while the great taste of a Big Mac remains the same.

The new round of McDonald's advertising, shot on location around the world, feature a number of different storylines and music adaptations.

They were produced by McDonald's various creative agencies - DDB Worldwide, Burnett, Burrell Communications and dRM. McDonald's EVP and global CMO Larry Light confirmed that the agencies were all given the opportunity to contribute to the latest batch of TVCs.