Alex Carson
McDonald’s
McDonald’s has changed a lot over the past few decades. When people over the age of 40 were growing up, McDonald’s was filled with pictures, posters, and even life-size sculptures of Ronald McDonald, Grimace, The Hamburgler, and later, the little Chicken McNuggets. McDonald’s was a place for kids.
The Business Model Changed
In the late ’90s and the early 2000s, McDonald’s changed its business model, and every restaurant went through a major remodel. Suddenly, it was all about the McCafe in hopes of bringing more adults in. Ronald McDonald and company came down, and they were replaced with posters of active teens and adults eating various items from the menu. Unfortunately, the posters were lacking.
Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo
Jevh and Christian are two men who were regulars at their local McDonald’s. Jevh is a student at the University of Houston and Christian is a Goodwill Ambassador for the Mabuti Group. Jevh loves pranks, and he often videotaped his pranks and put them on his YouTube channel, Jevholution.
A Crazy Realization
Jevh and Christian are too young to remember the good old days when McDonald’s was decorated with Ronald McDonald and his crew. Since they didn’t remember it, they weren’t missing too much. They did see something missing with their local McDonald’s décor, however. There were posters hung all over the restaurant, but there were no Asian people in the posters. Every other race was included, but no Asians. They decided that they would do something about it. It started out as a prank but became so much more.
Making a New Poster
The boys saw one blank wall in the restaurant, so they decided to make their own poster. They needed it to look just like the others on the wall, so they went to McDonald’s and ordered a few items from the menu. They went down to the neighborhood events center because they thought that it would be the perfect backdrop for their photo. The two boys set up a tripod and took the photo. It came out great. It looked just like the other posters hanging in McDonald’s. They uploaded their photo to Office Depot’s website to have it blown up to the size of a large poster. The first part of their plan was complete. This was the easy part. Getting it up on the wall undetected would be a bit more challenging.
A Trip To Goodwill
The boys knew that they would need some sort of cover if they were going to hang the massive poster on the wall without someone becoming suspicious. Jevh visited the local goodwill, and he found a McDonald’s employee shirt in his size. This would be perfect. He needed more though. The bought a thin black tie, and the boys went back to Office Depot. This time, they were having a fake badge made. The badge stated that Jehv’s name was Jeff Bergara and his title was, “Regional Interior Coordinator.” This title would give him the permission that he needed to put the poster up on the wall without someone stopping him.
Don’t Vandalize
The boys wanted to pull off the prank, but they didn’t want to cause any damage to the empty wall. Rather than using nails, they used adhesive tape that would easily come off the wall. Since they were going to capture the whole prank on video, they didn’t want any evidence of any damage. Finally, the poster was up. The boys couldn’t believe that they pulled it off. When Jevh and Christian ate at McDonald’s, they tried not to draw attention to themselves. They didn’t want anyone to realize that it was them in the photo.
51 Days
Day after day, their poster remained hanging in McDonald’s. The boys couldn’t believe that it had gone on for so long. Finally, Jevh decided to let the world in on the secret. He posted a photo on Twitter of the photo and a caption about the prank. It quickly went viral and even caught the attention of someone famous.
Ellen DeGeneres
Ellen DeGeneres saw the post, and she invited the boys on her show. Jevh and Christian couldn’t believe that their simple prank created such a buzz. They jumped at the offer and flew out to Los Angeles to be on the show. What happened next blew them away.
Money
When the boys were on the show, Ellen told them that she reached out to McDonald’s. They loved what the boys did and decided to use them in a marketing campaign. They said that they were committed to diversity and they congratulated the boys for what they did. They also gave them each $25,000. McDonald’s released a statement that they were looking forward to working with the two best Regional Interior Coordinators that they ever had. After a prank went undetected for 50 days, McDonald’s gave the two culprits a gigantic payout. They couldn’t believe that something so big came from something so simple.
