McDonald's Sweden Adjusts Prices for Student Budgets

If McDonald’s latest ad campaign in Sweden tells us anything, it is that student loan worries are not only plaguing the minds of Americans.

American students are borrowing twice what they did a decade ago, after adjusting for inflation, according to the College Board. In 2009-10, 56% of full-time undergrads at public colleges had student loans and 65% of undergrads at private universities had student loans, according to The Huffington Post. And for the first time, student loan debt exceeded credit card debt.

And while higher education in Sweden is no where near as expensive as in the states – in fact, public institutions are free – Swedish students still struggle, as their American counterparts do, to live off of student loans, especially in the rough economic times.  

With this insight, DDB Stockholm has created The Student Loan Menu for McDonald’s Sweden.

Instead of offering a discount to students, it has created a flexible price menu that changes with the state of students' finances.

The prices hit their peaks around the 25th of the month after students receive their monthly student loan payment. They get gradually cheaper each week until the 24th.

The campaign, which will run in print and outdoor in university across Sweden, consists of four weekly ads. Each  ad describes the current financial state of that week - from feeling rich on the 25^th to digging for change by the 14^th.

It should be interesting to see how students respond to the campaign and if it drives more sales at the university locations and how it changes the way that students view the brand.

While I doubt that McDonald's stores in U.S. university towns have trouble attracting students, I would imagine that replacing the dollar menu with this type of fluctuating menu would go a long way in endearing the golden arches to co-eds everywhere.

Courtesy of AdAge's Creativity Online