McDonald’s is adding a bit of Grecian architecture and drama to downtown Toronto this summer by turning the support post on a billboard into an ancient Greek column. Advertising its new Mediterranean-themed menu items, the billboard will stand until July 31 as part of a campaign including radio, TV and online.

‘Given it was a unique and limited-time product introduction, we really wanted to bring to life for consumers in a memorable way that a taste of the Mediterranean was now available at McDonald’s,’ Alyssa Huggins, group account director at Cossette, which developed the creative and billboard, tells MiC. OMD handled the media buy and chose the billboard location, at Richmond and Adelaide, while Pattison built the column, Huggins explains.

No special permit was needed, however the cost was about 25 times of a regular OOH buy, says Huggins. ‘On a cost per thousand basis, to reach the consumer, yes it’s more – but you know it’s something that [McDonald’s] wanted to make the investment on, given the kind of buzz and the talk value we were hoping for.’

The cover line for the chicken wrap is ‘Oh my Zeus, it’s Good.’ Radio and TV ads will also mention other Mediterranean menu choices (salad, chicken sandwich) and are running on conventional channels across Ontario.