Hasta La Creative!

In 1972, McDonald’s hired Burrell McCain (now Burrell Communications Group) to help the fast-food chain do a better job of connecting with African-American diners.

The agency had been founded in 1971 with a mission to convince marketers that there were differences between African-American and white consumers, and that their advertising should reflect this. “The general belief before we came on the scene was that television reached everybody,” agency co-founder Tom Burrell said in an interview on Chicago public television’s “Chicago Tonight” in 2005. And, as he would go on to say in countless interviews, “Black people are not dark-skinned white people.”

By the late 1970s, Burrell’s work depicting black culture was resonating far beyond its initial target and enjoying wide crossover appeal. Case in point: McDonald’s ads such as “Double Dutch” from 1981.

Continue reading at AdAge.com