McDonalds seems to have much more creative leeway in Japan than elsewhere, perhaps due to the comfort level consumers have with marketing campaigns. The Quarter Pounder Shop is a great example…what would be seen as a cynical marketing ploy by many in the U.S. gets great press as an innovative new concept in Japan.
The Quarter Pounder campaign has evolved into another pop-up shop concept for a very limited time. The Bara-Iro (rose color) T-Shirt shop is a pop-up shop within a McDonalds, lasting only from June 11-16.
The Shibuya Center-Gai McDonalds has completely remodeled its second-floor eating area into a super-pink, t-shirt-selling wonderland. Customers who order Quarter Pounders receive metal “bara-iro” pins, but those who are a bit more bold can venture into the Bara-Iro T-Shirt Shop to purchase one of fifty different designs, all printed on rose-colored shirts.
Each shirt costs about $10 and is quite limited, as can be seen below. When we visited yesterday nearly half of the shirts were all gone already, and with a surprisingly large number of customers inside.
As mentioned previously, this seems like the type of campaign that wouldn’t get nearly the same reception in a major U.S. city. The cool factor would only arise twenty years later when hipsters started wearing them ironically, and by then it’s a bit late.
UPDATE: Our pal Andrew Shuttleworth snagged some video from another McDonalds t-shirt campaign in April, this time giving out free “Love & Beer” shirts (?).
Michael is the Editor of JapanTrends.com and Director of the 
That’s intersting. The food and t-shirt thing reminds me of a shirt I bought my girlfriend at La Foret that was sctatch and sniff. I brought it home as a gift and she knew about them already. Did some research and it turns out they are pretty well known….although, I would not want a fries scratch and sniff.
http://www.cream-nyc.com
hat’s intersting. The food and t-shirt thing reminds me of a shirt I bought my girlfriend at La Foret that was sctatch and sniff. I brought it home as a gift and she knew about them already. Did some research and it turns out they are pretty well known….although, I would not want a fries scratch and sniff.