The campaign marks a major shift for McDonald's marketing strategy as it contends with the likes of Coca-Cola to 'own' the summer season, a peak traffic period for the brand.
David Morita, vice-president of marketing at McDonald's Hong Kong, said: "The campaign marks a departure for McDonald's in terms of the tone and manner present in our previous advertising, with a concerted effort to capture the easygoing, relaxed nature of people and their moments of connection... The hope is that in the long term when people out here think of summer and all the good times it brings, they will also think of McDonald's."
The long-term summer strategy is expected to bring greater consistency to the brand's marketing and advertising.
Peter Rodenbeck, director of operations at DDB Greater China, which developed the campaign, added: "This is the first time that (McDonald's) has made a concerted effort and long-term strategy for summer. In the past, products have varied market-by-market and year-by-year. Coke also does this consistently.
If you ask which brand owns the summer, it would be Coke. This is an opportunity for McDonald's to build an experience that it owns."
The campaign features a reprisal of Cindy Lauper's hit song True colours, by Hong Kong pop singer Kelly Chen and Taiwan star Lee Hom, as it combines the aspects of summertime - swimming pools, summer heat, couples in love and ice-cream - in a through-the-line campaign.
The theme song is expected to appear on Chen's upcoming album.
The television commercial is a montage of classic summer panoramas as seen through the eyes of Chen and Hom.
The art direction also uses the thematic candy colours to introduce a new range of desserts and toys.
Interestingly, the fastfood restaurant created the desserts based on the advertising campaign.
"We selected the colours for the campaign and then built the product around it, so that in Hong Kong you have Blue Fanta or Pineapple Punch, which is yellow, among other flavours," Rodenbeck added.
As part of its summer push, McDonald's is offering Hello Kitty dolls, rendered in the candy colours of the campaign. Unlike the Snoopy promotion - which triggered consumer brawls at McDonald's outlets and traded one doll for every person in Hong Kong during the promotion period - the Hello Kitty promotion is expected to sell one toy for every third person in the city.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong designer Eric Kot has been commissioned to redesign uniforms for McDonald's frontline staff.