The fast food chain McDonald's is attempting to promote the brand to potential future employees via an online game. Since the COVID pandemic, many McDonald's branches have subsequently shut down or lost staff in the process, forcing it to think up modern strategies to find new employees.
The advertisement game, or "advergame," is titled "McDonald's Crush The Rush" and sees the player put in the role of a McDonald's worker dealing with the rapid pace of drive-thru orders. The simple yet demanding nature of the game is designed to replicate the fast-paced work environment in an appealing way.
McDonald's Crush The Rush takes its cues from multiple Flash-style arcade games where players take orders from customers and have to reliably multitask to get the job done. Gameplay consists of clicking on the relevant order items and working with the pre-programmed team to get the highest score possible until five or more orders become backlogged. The goal is to portray food service work as a wholly fun and entertaining place to be, but it remains to be seen whether the repetitive gameplay is enough to convince players to join the McDonald's team.
The official press release for the game explains that McDonald's Canada has 25,000 job opening emerging over the next three-month period, and is trying to use this game as one of its advertisement tools. Alongside the press release, other promotional content has been used by McDonald's on social media such as brand accounts joking with Xbox about its acquisitions.
Promotional online games have been used by big brands for decades, such as the Burger King restaurant chain advergames. Crush The Rush may remind some players of a similar Flash game released in 2006, which was a satirical parody based on McDonald's and its various departments. Official McDonald's spokespersons explained their disapproval of the game soon after it gained popularity.
McDonald's has used many marketing techniques over the years to continue attracting customers to its eatery, with varying degrees of success. Recently the UK McDonald's chain pulled Pokemon cards from Happy Meal promotions due to scalpers and collectors based on events in the US, but sales continue on strong regardless. Assuming the Canadian McDonald's branch meets its employment quota thanks to its Crush The Rush game, then more advergames could be seen in the future.
McDonald's Crush The Rush is available to play online until May 22.