BURRELL HELPS MCDONALD’S SPREAD THE LOVE
In the course of making “Good Things” — a celebration of African American culture channeled through the McDonald’s social space called 365Black.com — Burrell Communications Group succesfully utilized the same kind of spontaneous optimistic creativity that the spot is intended to portray.
Concluding with a message that was not written until the final day of production and moving to a soundtrack that was selected weeks later, the one-minute drama is a testament to artistic collaboration, something that 365Black.com has championed for years.
“We actually came up with the final idea on the night before the shoot,” recalls Burrell CCO Lewis Williams. “We just kept working on ideas and ideas and, maybe 11 o’clock, we found one that had a lot of impact and everyone agreed on.”
The “final idea” is a large mural featuring the word “Love” on the side of a building. It is a pivotal element to the commercial’s original concept — “this whole misdirection,” according to Williams — that Burrell had pitched to McDonald’s weeks earlier.
The spot opens with a stark montage of African American teens in a neighborhood where the writing on the wall literally declares, “no future.” The kids bump fists and tag bricks in alleys and shadows before ultimately leading viewers to a fresh new destination that earns the line, “You spread lovin’ where you live.”
“There’s a lot of negativity coming out of African American neighborhoods,” Williams explains. “The news likes to play those things up.”
“We thought it would be a great idea where you would think maybe this is going where you think it’s going to go, but then the young people show, you know what, we care about this neighborhood.”
Once Burrell got the idea on the drawing board — in Williams’ words, “a mural that reflected love” — they deliberately left the rest of the canvas blank. There would be plenty of people on the L.A. set to help complete the picture.
Among them was Refa1, a visionary artist whose work includes large outdoor murals in Oakland and who boasts, “my mind has been on creative overdrive ever since my 9 month residency in the Primordial Womb.” Besides creating the climactic mural, he provides the spot’s voiceover.
He is also part of AeroSoul, an “international African diaspora spray can art movement,” that joined the collaboration an provided many of the artists featured in the commercial.
Since Burrell wanted the commercial to show the process of creating the mural as well as the finished mural itself, work on it did not begin until the final day of the shoot, which began with clouds and rain. Fortunately, direction was in the hands of award-winning Joe Pytka.
“Joe Pytka has shot so many classic McDonald’s spots,” Williams says. “He can tell a great story.”
After wrapping production, Burrell determined that Marvin Gaye’s legendary ode to urban frustration, “Make Me Wanna Holler,” was perfect for the spot.
“It’s not just a piece of music,” Williams explains, “but a real song with a story line in itself.”
Putting it all together was Bob Ackerman, an editor at The Colonie who has worked on a number of spots shot by Pytka.
“The most challenging thing was to balance the mood,” he recalls.
“Spreading a positive message through the neighborhood is the payoff.”